May 25, 2014: "The Most Important Election"

In spite of the State Department's request that American citizens "defer all travel" to Odesa, our observer mission still sent us there. Things had been quiet since the Trade Unions fire, so we figured there was a good chance that everything would be OK. Still, rumors were flying about the possibilities of further violence brought in by Russians from Transnistria (the portion of Moldova under control by Russian separatists, whose border is nearby), and I was on edge enough that I felt it safer not to tell many people that I was going there until after I had already returned.

So after the orientation for observers, we took an overnight train from Kyiv. Arriving too early to check into our hotel, we were given a tour around the city.

Odesa has the feel of a port city, laid-back and breezy. Its wide boulevards are lined with tall trees, evoking the feel of Paris or New Orleans. The architecture is diverse; art nouveau, gothic, and rococo facades are sprinkled throughout the city.

Following the annexation of Crimea, Odesa is now Ukraine's main port city.

Odesa's famous opera house

Signs of patriotism, while harder to find in Odesa than in L'viv or Kyiv, were there all the same.

A statue of Catherine the Great, the city's founder. This statue is just down the street from the famous Potemkin steps-- which I did not photograph on this visit, as I had taken a photo on my last visit.

This sculpture was gifted to the city of Odesa by Kyivstar, one of Ukraine's largest mobile phone carriers.

 Among the sites we visited was the place where the first protester was killed at the end of April. 

The shooting actually occurred further down the street. They had dragged him back to this corner to wait for an ambulance when he died.

Until that point, Odesa had remained immune to the violence that had occurred elsewhere in Ukraine, in spite of the substantial pro-Russian sentiment in the city. On that day 40 people died, but it is still unclear exactly how it happened. I've heard conflicting reports. The Kyiv Post said that a Pro-Ukrainian march to the soccer stadium ahead of a game was attacked by the separatists, who were then driven back to the trade unions building. A friend who claims to have known one of the participants, though, said that the fans at the soccer game were riled into becoming a mob and going to attack the separatists. Whatever the truth may be, there was a clash, and molotov cocktails thrown between the two forces ignited the building and killed those inside. The tragedy shook the city to its very core.

There was certainly a tension in the air leading up to the elections. Fortunately, our pre-election visits to local polling locations revealed no major issues, except one precinct where the head of the election committee would not let us in.

We were told upon arriving in Odesa that there was actually little concern about the Presidential election-- it was the mayoral race which was hotly contested. That said, it was technically not within our purview to comment on the mayoral elections-- our job was only to observe the presidential contest.

Aside from the polling location where we started and ended the day (the same place where the head would not let us in the day before), we by and large witnessed few major irregularities. The overriding sentiment in the precincts seemed to be one of joy and optimism. It was so touching to receive genuine words of gratitude from voters, commission members, and local observers alike. One old man who had come to vote and saw me standing behind the table said, "I'm happy to see you." Others expressed that it was important that we were here, especially this time. Everyone seemed to understand that this was a decisive moment for the country. An election not considered to be free and fair would give Putin a pretext for invasion, an outcome which nobody wanted.

It was a long day, which began at 7:45 (the polls were to open at 8:00 am) (although ours did not actually open until 8:35) and did not end until we returned to the hotel at 6:30 the next morning. By Ukrainian law, once the polling station has been closed to voters, the building is to be locked and no one is to leave or enter until all the ballots have been counted. We actually ended up leaving early because there were so many problems at our polling station we weren't sure they were going to finish anytime soon. We did, at least, stay until the presidential votes were tallied. In our precinct Poroshenko won by a wide margin, and Dmitry Yarosh, the leader of "Right Sector", the far-right group that Putin has been maligning, received only six votes. These results seemed to pretty accurately reflect the results nationwide.

Because of the sensitive nature of the things that I witnessed, I will speak in general terms about Ukrainian election law, the things we looked for, and what types of problems we encountered. I will be including a mixture of pictures from various precincts. If you want to know more about my experience, please ask me in person.

Each precinct was to have one of these signs outside of the polling location, clearly marking it as a voting location. Many were in schools, often two or three in the same school.

Each precinct was also required to have a Ukrainian flag by the entrance.

As our precinct opened late, there was a line of disgruntled voters waiting in the hallway.

The pink ballots were for the mayoral election, the purple ones for the presidential. Both were cast simultaneously.

A Ukrainian passport was the only valid form of identification to receive a ballot. Part of our job was to watch and make sure people weren't being given ballots without first presenting a Ukrainian passport.

Once the passport had been checked, the name of the voter was found on the voter list and the voter signed beside it to indicate that they had received a ballot.

The other international observers on my team :)

Typically there were several other observers already at the location, from the local press and from other international organizations.

At each precinct, we asked to see the safe in which the ballots were held. There were not supposed to be any ballots in the safe after the polls had opened.

This precinct had followed the rules. There were some precincts we encountered, however, where some ballots still remained in the safe, which is a violation of election law.

The ballot boxes were to be placed in a central location, visible to everyone in the room, to prevent tampering. They were to be sealed on both sides, either with the plastic purple ties shown here, or with a piece of paper signed and stamped by the commission and glued across the seam.

Posters with the information for all twenty-one candidates were to be hung in clear view for the examination of all voters. We encountered a few precincts, though, where a couple of the posters were mysteriously missing (or had been vandalized)

The mobile ballot boxes are for people who are physically unable to come to the polls. They are brought around to the voters' homes. Technically, once they have been brought back to the precinct they are supposed to be turned upside down and stored in plain view so that no one can put extra ballots inside.

As I stated earlier, by and large we did not witness many big violations. Still, at least two out of the sixteen precincts we visited that day did have some issues. These, however, were mostly relating to the mayoral election and not the presidential. By the time we returned to the hotel at 6:30 the next morning, Petro Poroshenko had already been declared the winner of the presidential race through exit polling.

I slept for five or six hours after our return. Our train back to Kyiv was not until the late evening. Unfortunately, I was feeling seriously unwell after my multiple short nights. Fortunately, I was able to request a late checkout from the hotel and remain in my room lying down for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, this meant I didn't get any more time to explore Odesa. No worries, though-- I am sure I will be back someday.