Key Personnel Manning The Polls

By: Admin

Image caption: File An outdoor agent checking the voter’s list for name of this elderly woman at Seaward Drive polling station in St Andrew in the 2016 general election.

Various categories of workers make up Jamaica’s election machinery on and prior to election day. Today, The Gleaner highlights some of these workers and the duties they perform.

The Returning Officer

The returning officer is responsible for the supervision of the elector-registration process as well as the recruitment, selection, and training of special projects, personnel, and election day workers.

The returning officer also provides the presiding officer with the necessary resources.

It is also this person’s duty to furnish each nominated candidate with four copies of the official list of electors disaggregated into four parts, namely, the military voters’ list, the police voters’ list, the election officers voters’ list, and the civil voters’ list.

The Agent

Sections 41 and 41A of the Representation of the People Act give the right to each candidate to appoint an indoor agent and an outdoor agent to watch the proceedings at each polling station on his or her behalf.

The agent will be able to report to the candidate how many people turned up at the polling station and observe all voting procedures, including the sealing of ballot boxes.

The agent can also ensure that the ballot given to the elector by the presiding officer is the same ballot returned.

Agents will not be able to determine who an elector votes for as each person casts his or her ballot behind a screen.

No more than one person at any given time shall be entitled to perform the functions of outdoor agent for a candidate at a polling station.

The outdoor agent shall be stationed not less than 20 yards from the polling station.

At the end of polling activities, the agent is also present during the counting of votes.

The Presiding Officer

The main duty of the presiding officer is to carry out the statutory requirements of polling as outlined in the law and to make sure that voting is conducted in an orderly manner.

The presiding officer must:

• Ensure that he or she is supplied with enough material by the returning officer.

• Post the directions to electors in places outside of the polling station.

• Swear in the indoor agents of candidates.

• Hand certificate of ballot paper to the agents of candidates.

• Examine ballot boxes to ensure that they are empty at the start of polling.

• Open the polling station and admit electors.

• Ensure order in the polling station.

• Ensure that persons who apply to vote are listed as electors and are properly identified.

• Explain to voters how to mark the ballot properly, how to fold the ballot, and the symbol given to the respective candidates.

• Explain how to properly mark the ‘X’ for their selected candidate.

• Ensure that the ballot being returned by the elector is the same one issued to him by checking the serial number.

• Ensure that the elector immerses his or her finger in the electoral ink before the ballot is placed in the box.

The Poll Clerk

The poll clerk is responsible for properly completing the official records of the poll.

The poll clerk should request the ID card or other means of identification from the voter and check the elector’s name on the voters’ list.

The poll clerk must keep proper records pursuant to the requirements of the poll book and record objections made by the agent of any candidate in relation to the taking of the poll.

The poll clerk must also assist the presiding officer as necessary or as directed.

The Observer

The observer promotes confidence in the fairness of poll results.

An observer is permitted to monitor the voting process carried out at a polling location and the counting of votes after the poll has closed.

No more than four observers shall be permitted to remain in any polling location at any given time.

The election observer group Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE), based in Jamaica, and international groups such as the Organization of American States often oversee elections.

The Scrutineer

Each political party having five or more members in the House of Representatives, or not less than five per cent of the total vote at the last national election, shall be entitled to appoint one person as scrutineer in respect of each polling division.

Scrutineers from the two major political parties, accompanied by staff of the Electoral Office of Jamaica, are charged with verifying residences in the registration process.