Important reminder for voters: Over one million people have received their polling cards for the European elections electronically

Voting period for the European Parliament elections starts on Wednesday 29.5.2024. The Digital and Population Data Services Agency have sent out polling cards to eligible voters in May. Those who have activated Suomi.fi Messages have only received the polling card electronically. Those who do not use Suomi.fi Messages have received their polling cards by post as before. Polling cards sent by post have been delivered to the address registered by the person in the Population Information System.

"Many voters have received their polling cards for the European elections electronically this spring. They may not all remember that the polling card has been sent electronically to Suomi.fi Messages instead of paper mail. In other words, if you haven’t received a polling card by post in May, check your Suomi.fi Messages and make sure that you have the correct e-mail address listed there. Notifications of incoming messages are sent to the email address that you have provided to the service. If you are using the Suomi.fi mobile application, the app will also notify you when you receive a new message," says Maria Juka-Lahdenperä, Service Owner of Suomi.fi Messages from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Otto Palmu, Election Manager at the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, notes that everyone intending to vote on the election day should also open the notification, whether in paper form or electronic format, and check how and where to vote.

"On the election day 9.6.2024, you can only vote at the polling station mentioned in the polling card. The polling card includes information on the polling station on the election day and a list of advance polling stations in the recipient's area. Voters don't need to bring the polling card with them to the polling station – an identity card is all you need to vote. Taking the polling card with you may be useful, however, if you are voting in advance abroad or in a hospital, a prison or a retirement home," Palmu says.

Electronic notifications are a significant eco-action

Sending electronic notifications instead of paper ones is also a significant eco-action, as it saves millions of pages of paper and reduces emissions from their transport.

Suomi.fi Messages now has 1.3 million users. The users of Suomi.fi Messages receive messages from several different authorities in the same service. This includes official decisions, invoices, health care appointment notifications and other important documents. Using Suomi.fi Messages can therefore significantly reduce the amount of paper you receive. Documents received from different authorities will also be easily accessible in the service.

Voters using Suomi.fi Messages have already helped save approximately five million sheets of paper in the European elections. However, even more paper could be saved.

"According to our calculations, if all those entitled to vote in the 2024 presidential and European elections had received their polling cards electronically, almost 29 million sheets of paper would have been saved. That pile of papers would be around three kilometres tall. That's almost ten Eiffel towers stacked on top of each other," Juka-Lahdenperä explains.