ASTORIA – Greek Minister of the Interior Niki Kerameus offered an informative presentation on postal voting in the upcoming European Union elections for Greek citizens in a well-attended event held at the St. Demetrios community’s Petros Patrides Cultural Center in Astoria on March 27.

Consul General of Greece in New York Dinos Konstantinou gave the welcoming remarks at the event which was attended by His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Dean of St. Demetrios Cathedral Fr. Anargyros Stavropoulos, and AHEPA Supreme President Savas Tsivicos as well as the leaders and representatives of many Greek societies and associations.

“It is a great joy and honor to have the Minister of the Interior of Greece Niki Kerameus with us,” Consul General Konstantinou said, noting that she is on a tour in the United States and in Europe to inform the Greeks of the Diaspora about postal voting which is available for the first time for the European Union elections.

He noted that the Consulate General has set up a special telephone line to provide assistance for those registering online for postal voting.

“We have a Help Desk that operates Monday through Friday, 9 AM-4 PM, that you can call for any problem related to your registration.

The phone number is 973-921-7374,” Konstantinou said and then introduced the Minister of the Interior Kerameus.
“It is a great pleasure to be near you, in the heart of Hellenism,” she said. “This informational event is part of a wider effort we are making in order to inform the Greeks living abroad about the fundamental institutional changes to the right to vote.”

In her presentation, Kerameus highlighted the straightforward and easy to follow process of online registration utilizing screens set up at the front and sides of the Patrides Center for the audience members to follow along. She went through each of the steps for registration for postal voting which has essentially resolved the practical obstacles to exercising the right to vote for all Greeks, wherever they happen to live, after the restrictions on voting for Greek abroad were lifted, thanks to the new voting law that was passed last summer.

“Think of those of our compatriots who lived in Buenos Aires who had to take a plane to vote, or those in Perth, who also had to take a plane for hours in order to vote. While we had removed the legal restrictions, the practical restrictions remained,” said the Minister of the Interior.

Kerameus spoke step by step about the registration process on the online platform: https://epistoliki.ypes.gov.gr, where each voter can enter the account either through the TaxisNet codes, or by using their Greek passport number, in the case of residents living abroad who have not been registered electronically. She also indicated the way in which voters choose the party and European parliament candidates on their mail-in ballots which be mailed to voters along with a special booklet that includes the list of all the candidates.

“The ballot is different from what you are used to. The ballot has two sides. The first one has all the parties, you choose which you prefer. The reverse side has 42 numbered boxes, each corresponding to a candidate of the party chosen. For example, we select Party A and select candidates numbered 1, 3, 5, and 7. I select up to four candidates. If I select five candidates, the ballot is invalid. We can choose a party and not a candidate, but not candidates without having chosen a party,” emphasized Kerameus.

She then demonstrated how the mail-in ballot should be sealed and placed in the special envelope to be mailed to Greece via courier service. The deadline for registering on the government platform for postal voting in the European parliamentary elections is April 29.

Once registered, the ballot will be mailed to the voter at whatever address they prefer and they can vote from the comfort of their home or office. Kerameus also pointed out that the postal voting is available for all Greek citizens, even those in Greece who cannot go back to where they are registered to vote in person in June due to work commitments or mobility issues, as long as they register online by the April 29 deadline.

A Q&A session followed the presentation, with some audience members expressing reservations about the process while others praised it. As one audience member noted, his mother will be able to vote from her living room rather than having to fly to Greece to vote in the election.

In a question regarding the security of personal data, a concern that arose after the recent incident under investigation with leaked emails from the office of Anna-Michelle Assimakopoulou, Kerameus clarified that the postal voting process is inviolable and the data of those registered is absolutely secure. She noted that while Greece came late to adopting postal voting, it is therefore able to utilize the best practices for implementing the process.

A question from Timoleon Ziogkas referred to the 5 million euro cost of the advertising campaign and the number of registrations that could make it a successful campaign. Kerameus replied that this campaign is particularly far-reaching and the advertisement for postal voting appears in the form of a pop-up window on all the Greek government websites to reach as many citizens as possible. She noted that she checks the registrations daily along with where the registrations are coming in from, mentioning Papua-New Guinea, Ivory Coast, Angola, and Kazakhstan, countries where voting at a consulate or embassy was not possible for Greek citizens.

“I consider serving one citizen in a distant area to be a win for democracy,” she said. “The numbers are increasing. I call on all Greek citizens to take advantage of this convenience and participate in democracy because democracy is about participation.”