Articles - ELECTION VOTING CHANGES M.G. George

The Electoral Department has taken on more employees, special assistants as they are called, to look into identifying suitable places for polling stations.
This is just one of several measures presently being pushed by the Department, some being pretty revolutionary to the electoral process as known by Saint Lucians, as it readies itself for the ringing of the election bell later this year.
Prime Minister Stephenson King had proclaimed that general elections will be held this year however he has yet to pinpoint the month and day at which it would be held.
Persons close to the Prime Minister have predicted November as election month however the Electoral Department is not unduly worried as it goes about preparing political parties and the general public for polling day.
However not everyone is on board with the Department’s new voting measures despite the effort by the Electoral Commission to bring political parties and independents together to explain and clarify the new procedures and processes intended to be put into place for the upcoming general elections.
The opposition Saint Lucia Labour Party has lauded the efforts of the Commission in organizing the session with its political leader, proclaiming that it was a step in the right direction and a long overdue platform to disseminate information.
The ruling United Workers Party for its part has no problems with the session and the new measures introduced by the Commission, it having a representative of the Prime Minister at the meeting, however its Chairman Clem Bobb has warned of the possibility of difficulty in understanding, among some of the electorate, the new measures the Department plans to introduce.
Bobb is of the view that this should not be the time the Department should go making changes to a practice and a process that has worked since adult suffrage and so close to elections.
But at what time should those modernized voting measures be made and explained to the public no one seems to know?
Carson Raggie, Chief Elections Officer spoke to The VOICE about the new measures which includes, amongst others, affixing a passport size photo of all candidates on the ballot paper, as well as the introduction of a voting stamp to replace the use of pencils.
The special assistants will be looking for suitable places for polling stations throughout the country that will offer access to all persons, meaning the aged, those who need to hold on to railings to get along, even wheelchair bound individuals.
The Department had intended taking its advanced voting procedure to another level, meaning making it possible for persons who would be out of the country on polling day to vote prior to leaving however the Commission felt that as good an idea as this was it would be better not to introduce this procedure for this year’s elections. Meanwhile Correctional Officers have been included in the list of persons who usually vote ahead of the general public meaning police officers and firemen.
The UWP Chairman seems to be the only one with a problem regarding the new voting measures despite admitting that change is quite often necessary and good. He believes that the new measures have not been tested and tried.
“There are so many logistics to put in place, so many things that can go wrong. If your voting stamp disappears you hold up a whole line of persons wanting to vote,” he said, adding “after the name of every candidate there is a line and if the stamp falls on the line you have not changed anything. Are you telling me that if the stamp is placed on the line between the two candidates it’s going to be a valid ballot? There are just too many things that have not been considered, not been tried or tested,” he said.
Bobb is of the view that the changes could have been introduced a year after elections in preparation for the next one, which would have enabled people to get used to the process.
Other measures to be implemented on polling day are the banning of cell phones in the voting booths and the extension of the voting hours if such hours are interrupted by any emergency that would prevent people from voting during the normal voting hours.
Persons who are allowed cell phones within the polling areas are Returning Officers, Election Clerk, police officers on duty and designated staff of the electoral office