Elections · 2,861 rural communes · 11 elections, 2016–2025

Romania's mobile ballot box and its mayors: in rural communes, mobile-box voting rises at every round of local elections (2016–2025)

The mobile ballot box is carried to voters who cannot come to vote because of illness or disability. In Romania's rural communes, 111,692 people voted this way at the June 2024 local elections, 1.8 times as many as each commune's rate at the four national votes of November 2024 – May 2025 would predict. The rate has been higher at every round of local elections since 2016; in 2020 and 2024, under mayors from every large party.

Find a commune ↓

Hălmăgel, Arad county: 46 mobile-box votes in a mayoral race won by seven

In June 2024, 746 people voted for mayor in Hălmăgel, a commune of villages in western Romania. 46 of them voted at home, at the mobile ballot box of the commune's four polling stations. At the four national elections of November 2024 – May 2025, the mobile box brought in one vote, none, none and one from the whole commune. The winner finished seven votes ahead of the runner-up.

The pattern repeats at every round of local elections: 30 mobile-box votes in 2016, 30 in 2020, 46 in 2024. At the national elections in between, two at most.

Each stamp is one voter who voted at the mobile ballot box. Violet: local elections, with the mayor on the ballot. Grey: national elections. Source: polling-station records, Permanent Electoral Authority.

What all rural communes show, across 11 elections

The chart adds up all 2,861 rural communes. A commune (comună) is Romania's basic rural local authority, usually a handful of villages with one elected mayor. Each bar shows how many voters in 1,000 voted at the mobile box.

Rural communes, local electionsRural communes, national electionsTowns and cities

In every four-year cycle, the local elections sit above the national elections around them: 14.3 per 1,000 in 2016, against 10.4 at that year's parliamentary election and 6.9–8.6 at the 2019 presidential election; 22.1 in 2020, against 17.8 at the parliamentary election; 24.1 in 2024, against 9.6–19.5 at the four national votes that followed.

Mobile-box voting has grown over time at every type of election, and the 2020 and 2024 parliamentary elections overtook the 2016 local ones. The jump from a cycle's local elections to the national votes beside them has held every time.

In towns and cities the order is reversed: 4.7 voters in 1,000 used the mobile box in the 2024 local elections, between 7.0 and 9.6 at the national votes that followed. One rule matters here: in local elections only people entitled to vote in that place can vote, so hospital patients and prisoners from other places, whom the box reaches in hospitals and prisons, cannot vote in that town's local election.

The mobile box in any commune, at every election

Search for a commune or town, or click the map. The colour shows how many extra votes per 1,000 voters the mobile box brought at the 2024 local elections, above the commune's rate at the national votes that followed.

Commune or town

Pick a commune on the map or in the search box to see its mobile-box voters at each of the 11 elections.

In 130 communes and towns, the mayor won by fewer votes than the mobile box collected

The 2024 local elections had 3,050 mayoral races with at least two candidates and no tie. In 130 of them (124 in rural communes), more people voted at the mobile box than the gap between the first and second candidates. In 58, the gap was smaller even than the home votes collected above the commune's highest rate at the national votes that followed; they are marked ●.

At the 2020 local elections, the same happened in 135 communes and towns.

Commune	County	Mobile box, local 2024	At the four national votes that followed	Gap between the top two candidates
Hudești	Botoșani	158	3, 56, 0, 2	33
Alexeni	Ialomița	99	0, 4, 0, 4	24
Mârzănești	Teleorman	146	13, 53, 19, 3	3
Lunca	Botoșani	115	0, 27, 0, 8	10
Șicula	Arad	84	0, 0, 1, 3	72
Baia	Tulcea	83	0, 3, 4, 4	74
Nănești	Vrancea	91	20, 14, 18, 21	39
Duda-Epureni	Vaslui	73	0, 6, 0, 0	34
Schela	Galați	63	0, 3, 0, 0	50
Văgiulești	Gorj	68	0, 14, 0, 0	7
Cornea	Caraș-Severin	79	1, 11, 3, 26	29
Micăsasa	Sibiu	65	0, 12, 0, 9	10
Miheșu de Câmpie	Mureș	53	2, 1, 1, 1	11
Ivești	Vaslui	51	0, 0, 0, 0	50
Popești	Iași	53	0, 0, 0, 3	38
Tauț	Arad	73	24, 27, 8, 23	3
Vâlcele	Covasna	58	2, 12, 0, 2	24
Hălmăgel	Arad	46	1, 0, 0, 1	7
Războieni	Neamț	71	22, 29, 6, 1	3
Teliucu Inferior	Hunedoara	49	8, 9, 4, 8	36
Beuca	Teleorman	109	67, 70, 63, 70	9
Roșia de Secaș	Alba	38	0, 0, 0, 0	7
Bârsău	Satu Mare	57	0, 20, 0, 0	17
Alimpești	Gorj	33	0, 0, 0, 0	14
Colceag	Prahova	36	2, 4, 4, 0	29
Ceamurlia de Jos	Tulcea	34	0, 0, 0, 2	14
Șibot	Alba	50	18, 19, 1, 1	20
Cepari	Argeș	32	0, 0, 0, 1	25
Șăulia	Mureș	55	13, 25, 0, 13	15
Monor	Bistrița-Năsăud	44	0, 15, 1, 1	3
Mereni	Constanța	31	0, 1, 0, 2	11
Poeni	Teleorman	31	0, 0, 0, 2	6
Vermeș	Caraș-Severin	45	0, 18, 1, 1	10
Măgești	Bihor	36	10, 5, 0, 3	12
Slobozia Moară	Dâmbovița	29	0, 3, 1, 1	6
Căpreni	Gorj	29	0, 3, 0, 3	2
Ștorobăneasa	Teleorman	43	3, 5, 2, 17	10
Ticvaniu Mare	Caraș-Severin	32	2, 6, 7, 7	12
Mărgău	Cluj	25	2, 3, 2, 2	17
Helegiu	Bacău	23	0, 0, 0, 2	20
Runcu Salvei	Bistrița-Năsăud	28	1, 8, 0, 0	6
Brădeanu	Buzău	23	0, 3, 0, 0	15
Costinești	Constanța	24	0, 1, 0, 5	1
Cărbunești	Prahova	20	0, 0, 0, 1	6
Berzovia	Caraș-Severin	39	21, 22, 19, 18	4
Dămuc	Neamț	17	0, 0, 0, 0	2
Cărand	Arad	22	4, 6, 3, 5	7
Orașul Cehu Silvaniei	Sălaj	122	82, 107, 52, 63	2
Voineasa	Vâlcea	19	1, 2, 2, 4	13
Cozieni	Buzău	15	0, 0, 0, 1	7
Gâdinți	Neamț	10	0, 0, 0, 0	5
Cuca	Argeș	9	0, 0, 0, 0	1
Livezile	Timiș	11	1, 1, 2, 2	5
Bogdănița	Vaslui	16	7, 4, 3, 2	3
Avram Iancu	Bihor	12	4, 5, 1, 1	5
Orașul Amara	Ialomița	12	4, 7, 0, 0	1
Șiștarovăț	Arad	4	1, 0, 0, 0	1
Roșcani	Iași	3	0, 0, 0, 0	2
Trivalea-Moșteni	Teleorman	123	0, 1, 3, 11	114
Devesel	Mehedinți	141	23, 46, 11, 60	86
Balta Albă	Buzău	81	8, 20, 0, 0	67
Furculești	Teleorman	87	17, 17, 27, 16	57
Tetoiu	Vâlcea	92	19, 32, 11, 17	64
Bălușeni	Botoșani	137	8, 81, 4, 8	132
Porumbacu de Jos	Sibiu	48	0, 2, 0, 1	47
Sălciile	Prahova	122	81, 81, 57, 59	64
Perișor	Dolj	66	24, 26, 14, 1	44
Bobota	Sălaj	52	1, 13, 3, 8	36
Corbu	Olt	87	37, 49, 44, 5	56
Călmățuiu de Sus	Teleorman	95	40, 59, 47, 46	84
Brusturi	Bihor	52	0, 17, 0, 9	49
Sânger	Mureș	38	3, 4, 1, 2	36
Bocșa	Sălaj	106	49, 61, 50, 73	61
Băbeni	Sălaj	87	44, 54, 14, 25	5
Ostrov	Tulcea	36	4, 0, 0, 1	35
Izvoarele	Tulcea	61	29, 30, 0, 1	29
Brazii	Arad	50	13, 17, 20, 13	27
Sâmbăta	Bihor	68	13, 38, 25, 25	29
Bălcăuți	Suceava	60	1, 30, 1, 0	45
Orașul Hârșova	Constanța	37	3, 8, 1, 8	32
Butoiești	Mehedinți	77	34, 49, 28, 1	32
Chisindia	Arad	33	6, 3, 2, 4	29
Gura Teghii	Buzău	44	1, 18, 2, 2	42
Sudiți	Ialomița	43	0, 17, 15, 16	24
Terpezița	Dolj	75	45, 50, 2, 3	69
Săhăteni	Buzău	83	38, 59, 24, 13	12
Miceștii de Câmpie	Bistrița-Năsăud	34	1, 11, 1, 1	22
Blăjeni	Hunedoara	33	6, 11, 5, 5	19
Rușețu	Buzău	25	0, 4, 0, 1	21
Chiojdeanca	Prahova	45	2, 25, 14, 7	18
Șepreuș	Arad	47	25, 28, 20, 12	4
Blândești	Botoșani	23	2, 4, 0, 0	18
Apele Vii	Dolj	53	18, 34, 32, 27	27
Ciuperceni	Gorj	27	7, 10, 0, 0	25
Oporelu	Olt	68	21, 51, 1, 1	61
Crucișor	Satu Mare	90	26, 74, 30, 7	5
Hășmaș	Arad	35	19, 20, 13, 18	14
Tătulești	Olt	85	61, 71, 57, 1	25
Cozmești	Iași	38	19, 25, 19, 2	30
Șilindia	Arad	37	21, 21, 25, 22	32
Densuș	Hunedoara	43	16, 32, 0, 3	35
Iratoșu	Arad	72	45, 63, 19, 21	7
Coșeiu	Sălaj	37	11, 28, 1, 17	4
Vlădeni	Iași	13	4, 5, 0, 2	9
Greci	Mehedinți	70	61, 62, 50, 52	50
Tanacu	Vaslui	28	8, 15, 0, 20	11
Livezi	Vâlcea	60	0, 52, 9, 11	46
Vărădia	Caraș-Severin	28	6, 22, 0, 1	3
Sarmizegetusa	Hunedoara	37	22, 29, 31, 13	17
Toplița	Hunedoara	12	4, 7, 6, 0	11
Pădina	Mehedinți	83	74, 78, 61, 55	43
Cervenia	Teleorman	37	29, 32, 25, 1	26
Balinț	Timiș	24	10, 18, 0, 19	16
Gârda de Sus	Alba	14	6, 8, 4, 10	10
Tansa	Iași	88	32, 84, 0, 1	61
Orașul Săcueni	Bihor	110	71, 107, 30, 79	1
Ormeniș	Brașov	61	41, 59, 1, 53	14
Bucinișu	Olt	53	29, 51, 10, 7	15
Izvoru Bârzii	Mehedinți	5	3, 4, 2, 1	4
Bârsa	Arad	40	20, 41, 5, 12	28
Orașul Târgu Lăpuș	Maramureș	54	29, 43, 23, 61	44
Bordești	Vrancea	42	25, 52, 40, 42	7
Bălăceanu	Buzău	68	71, 79, 24, 35	45
Siliștea Crucii	Dolj	73	69, 85, 61, 2	3
Siliștea-Gumești	Teleorman	78	85, 94, 93, 78	2
Birchiș	Arad	22	39, 41, 37, 41	7
Desa	Dolj	149	52, 172, 121, 24	124
Pomezeu	Bihor	103	51, 128, 57, 38	21
Scurtu Mare	Teleorman	107	128, 150, 130, 91	28
Municipiul Bistrița	Bistrița-Năsăud	150	689, 362, 637, 721	8

The obvious explanations, tested

The same type of election, with and without local elections on the same day

The May 2019 European election did not coincide with local elections (a referendum on the justice system was held the same day). In rural communes 7.0 voters in 1,000 voted at the mobile box, close to the first round of that year's presidential election (6.8). The June 2024 European election was held on the same day as the local elections, with the same mobile box: 24.1 per 1,000. Over the same five years, the presidential first-round rate rose only from 6.8 to 13.5. These figures come from the polling stations' turnout files, hence the small difference from the chart above, built from the result sheets (6.8 against 6.9).

The share of older voters barely moved

Voters aged 65 or over were roughly 22.1–24.5% of everyone who voted in rural communes at every election since 2019. Measured against their number, the mobile box collected 95.5 votes per 1,000 older voters at the 2024 local elections, against 43.0–86.2 at the national votes that followed. The files do not say how many mobile-box voters were older; the test only shows that a higher turnout of older people at local elections does not explain the jump.

Not one party

Mobile-box votes at the 2024 local elections against those each commune's national rate would predict, by the party of the mayor elected (the two tied races left out):

Party of the mayor elected in 2024	Communes	Mobile-box votes	Expected	Ratio
PSD (Social Democrats, incl. PSD – Pro România alliance)	1,491	57,871	31,437	1.84
PNL (National Liberals)	985	38,037	18,675	2.04
UDMR (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania)	118	5,813	4,980	1.17
USR (Save Romania Union) and the United Right Alliance	35	955	221	4.32
AUR (Alliance for the Union of Romanians)	27	936	283	3.31
other parties and independents	72	2,771	1,222	2.27

The jump is smallest in communes with UDMR mayors. At the 2020 local elections, measured against the 2019 presidential election, the ratio exceeded 2 for every large party, in a pandemic year: PSD 2.60, PNL 3.34, UDMR 4.07.

Not a handful of communes

In 2,084 of the 2,861 communes, the mobile box collected at least five more votes at the 2024 local elections than the commune's national rate would predict. In 225, it collected at least five fewer. The 100 largest differences together make up about 14% of the sum of positive differences.

It repeats at by-elections

On 7 December 2025, mayoral by-elections were held in 11 communes and the town of Găești. In ten of the 11 communes, the mobile box collected more votes than at either round of the May 2025 presidential election.

Place	County	By-election, Dec 2025	Pres. May 2025, round I	Round II
Vânători	Iași	78	0	3
Șieu	Maramureș	46	0	7
Remetea	Bihor	68	38	33
Sopot	Dolj	33	5	0
Cârța	Sibiu	27	0	2
Lumina	Constanța	20	0	3
Dobromir	Constanța	17	1	1
Marga	Caraș-Severin	21	6	10
Poienile de sub Munte	Maramureș	10	0	0
Valea Ciorii	Ialomița	26	20	0
Mihai Eminescu	Botoșani	0	0	2
Găești	Dâmbovița	21	306	303

Whom did the mobile-box voters choose?

Nobody knows. On return, mobile-box ballots go in with the polling station's other ballots. The data allow one association to be checked. In communes with at least three polling stations, a mobile-box share one percentage point higher went with a vote share about 0.65 percentage points higher for the commune-wide winner (standard error 0.19; 7,871 stations in 1,778 communes, accounting for the share of older voters and the same station's mobile box at national elections).

The calculation cannot separate two explanations: the mobile-box votes went mostly to the winner, or the stations with many of them favoured the winner anyway. As a benchmark: winners took on average 62% of the vote in these stations; if every mobile-box vote had gone to the winner and everyone else had voted as before, the association from those votes alone would have been about 0.38 percentage points per point.

Ibănești, Vaslui county: a final conviction and the numbers in the records

In October 2020, two weeks after the local elections, police detained the mayor and deputy mayor of Ibănești (Vaslui county, eastern Romania), with others, after a complaint by a mayoral candidate. According to investigators, forged medical certificates had been used for mobile-box requests.

On 23 October 2024, the Bârlad court sentenced the former mayor to 2 years and 8 months in prison, suspended under supervision, for forging private documents and using forgeries in continuing form, and barred him from standing for election for five years. The former deputy mayor and other defendants were convicted in the same case. The Iași Court of Appeal rejected the appeals on 8 May 2025, making the ruling final (case 7966/189/2022).

The records show 75 people voting at the mobile box in the commune at the 2020 local elections, against 12 at the 2016 local elections and none at either round of the autumn 2019 presidential election. At the 2024 local elections there were 12.

What the law requires for a mobile-box vote

A voter who cannot travel to the polling station because of illness or disability files a written request with copies of documents showing their health or disability (Law 115/2015 on local elections, art. 91).
The president of the polling-station bureau may approve the request. The law sets no limit on the number of requests per station.
A team of at least two members of the polling-station bureau carries the box, guarded by the Interior Ministry. Each station has one special box.
In local elections, only voters entitled to vote in that place can vote this way.
Deadlines and the form of the request are set by electoral-bureau decisions at each election. Article 91 does not separately regulate whether observers or candidates' representatives may accompany the box; that has been set by other provisions and decisions, differently from one election to the next.

The team takes the box and voting materials to wherever the voter is: at home, in hospital, in a care home or in detention. The vote remains secret.

What these data do not show

They do not show who voted for whom: mobile-box ballots are counted with the station's.
They do not show that any particular request was unlawful. Sick and disabled people have the right to vote at home, and a local campaign can help them learn about it.
They do not show how many requests were filed or refused: the files used here hold only how many people voted at the mobile box.
The comparison is aggregated by commune, not by village.
In the pandemic year 2020, mobile-box voting was higher than at earlier elections of both types. That is why the 2020 comparison uses the 2019 presidential election.
Who turns out also changes from one election to the next. The comparison uses each commune's rate per 1,000 voters, so higher turnout does not inflate the result. Even against each commune's highest national rate, the 2024 local mobile box stays 1.15 times larger.

How it was calculated

The number of voters at the mobile box comes from polling-station records published by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP): line b4 at local elections, line b3 at national elections. For the 2020 parliamentary election the county files are incomplete, so the number comes from the turnout file (column UM), which matches the records at every national election of 2024 and 2025 to within 0.2%.

Rural communes: every administrative unit that is not a city, town or Bucharest sector (2,861). Units are linked across elections by their SIRUTA code; the 2020 parliamentary election is linked by county and unit name. Băneasa (Constanța) has different codes in 2020 and 2024.

Expected mobile-box votes at a local election: for each commune, its rate at the national elections (the mean, or the highest in the strict version) times the number who voted at the local election. For 2024, the four national votes of November 2024 – May 2025; for 2020, both rounds of 2019; for 2016, the December 2016 parliamentary election. The June 2024 European election is left out because it was held on the same day as the local elections.

Gap between the top two candidates: votes of the first-placed candidate minus the second, from the constituency record. Communes with a tie (Chețani and Poșaga in 2024), where the race was re-run, are excluded.

The 2019 and 2024 European elections and the age test use the polling stations' turnout files (columns UM, LT and voters over 65). Residents over 80 in the commune card come from the 2021 census (INS, table 1.03).

Station test: for each rural polling station with at least 50 voters at the 2024 local elections, the commune winner's share of valid votes, explained by the mobile-box share of all voters (b4/b), the same station's mean mobile-box share at no fewer than three of the four national votes (matched by SIRUTA code and station number) and the share of voters aged 65 or over from the turnout file. Weighted by voters, with commune fixed effects, communes with at least three such stations only; standard errors clustered by commune with the G/(G−1)·(n−1)/(n−k−G) correction. Winner and runner-up are the whole commune's, fixed before any exclusion.

Download the table by commune (CSV)