(REAL News) — Supervisor of Elections Ian Hughes says the country has outgrown the old format of counting ballots at a central location after an election. Accordingly, he will be pushing for a change in the legislation.
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Based on the current law, ballots from the respective polling districts are transported to a central location, where the returning officer is mandated to count the votes in all the boxes within a particular constituency.
But in an interview last month, Hughes said he would prefer to see ballots counted at the respective polling stations – where persons actually cast their vote, instead.
Therefore, he will be advocating for the Parliament to make the legislative adjustments, since this would see election results returned at a much earlier time than the current norm.
Hughes admits that the current set-up is tedious, since, in some cases, one person has to count 5,000 ballots – after having performed earlier duties while the voting was taking place.
The Supervisor says that his proposal can be accomplished. He recalls that a similar action was taken in 2019, when there was a referendum to replace the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
In that instance, he says, the results were ready by 8 p.m.
He notes, however, that, with a new system, there would have to be an audit the day after the elections.
Further, Hughes says that with any new system or process, re- training and re-tooling will be of the utmost importance. Therefore, those involved in the electoral process would be required to undergo training if the counting process changes.
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