De Procrastinator

i voted

I was totally on the fence till the last minute. Even now, after my vote is cast and the damage is done.. i am still on the fence. Maybe.. I should have marked both boxes.. Maybe.. i should have written a note on my ballot instead to the PM, MM, SM in hope that one of them gets to read it..
Maybe I should have drawn a dead tortoise on my ballot paper as hubby suggested. haha. a dead tortise for the 'hell' party (the one below) and maybe a dead fish for the 'heaven' party (the one above).

To be honest i dint want to be on the fence. I did want to cast an accurate and responsible vote. Alas.. I read the papers, I read the election review section.. but what did i really find out? i think there were 7 pages discussing lightning issues, probably 3 pages discussing that arrow party (which in my mind is completely written off anyway) and just 3/4 of a page.. a pitiful 3/4 of a page on the hammer. Why? I wonder. Well my guess is as good as yours.

And i did watch the news. Every News report i caught on TV, from CNA to Ch5. I watched the election bit closely, trying to discern which side to be on. Alas as well.. In any day of News, there would be maybe 8 mins of clips on the lightning, 2 mins of shouting by the arrow, and maybe 1 or 2 min of not very hard hitting commentary by the hammer, which would then cut straight back to the lightning's reply. Why again? My guess is as good as yours. Hmm i wonder who owns our media?

And of course, no election blog would be complete without mentioning JG. As aptly commented by my colleague, 2 words sum up the elections. "J***s G***z". Agreed. And i thought as a nation, we had better things to talk about. Looks like I was mistaken.

Here's what happened at the ballot. So on each of our papers, we have a serial no. And i was watching closely all the way, what they intend to do with that. After all, the advertisement for polling proudly announces "your vote is secret" right?

So heres what happens. First, a guy will search for your name and number in his Big Book of Names and Numbers. He locates the number, checks your name against your identification, then marks it off, to indicate you have voted. Innocent enuf.

Then, he passes your ballot paper and identification to the guy sitting next to him who has a booklet of ballot coupons. Naturally this booklet of ballot coupons also has a running serial number. Its on both your ballot coupon, as well as the ballot coupon book stub. So what he does, is then fold the next ballot in his book in half, then write your serial number (the 1st number which is tied to your name and ID) on the ticket stub itself, and tears off the ballot coupon. So here, we have a link. Your serial number, next to the ballot coupon serial number which you are holding.

So here i was, observing all these proceedings, trying to figure things out. And i asked the guy, who was in the process of writing down my serial number on the ballot stub.
"Hey, you are writing down the serial number?"
"Yes, just procedure."
"Isn't the vote supposed to be secret?"
Looks uncertain, slightly worried. "Er, its just procedure..."

Nervously continues writing my number, then seemed to suddenly forget what to do next.
Read out my name to the polling agent across from him, and as expected bungled it, then tentatively handed over to me my ID, original ballot form and ballot coupon. I stood there and looked at him, waiting for him to tell me what to do next.. looked over to the voting stands, and asked him, "so .. do i go there?" Then he sorta realised i was still standing in front of him, as he had not given me any instructions.. he nervously coughed out a "ya.. ya"

I guess my question caught him off guard. I wonder why the uncertainty after the qn though.

Heres some links relating to this question.

Another blog:
http://www.djourne.net/sgelection06/index.php/2006/03/10/your-vote-is-secret-shhhhhh/

And an official comment on vote secrecy (must hear both sides of the story rite!!)
http://www.elections.gov.sg/secrecy.htm

And here is an extract from the other side of the story.
Theoretically, it is possible for anyone with access to the ballot papers to identify who cast a particular vote. The link between the ballot paper number and the electoral register through the counterfoil does facilitate tracing from a ballot paper to a voter's identity on the register. However, ballot papers can be examined only under strict conditions, and there are safeguards that make it extremely difficult to find out how any particular voter voted.

Although our ballot numbers (called the electoral register i believe) are handwritten on the ballot coupon stub, in this day and age, u could probably scan and capture and database all 1.2 million of these stubs in possibly under 2 days. Not much manpower needed. Maybe 2 persons together with the right machine and software? Possibly even just 1. But we know the gahmen always does things in pairs. And the actual vote with its own serial number? Thats probably captured when they count the vote.

And. they have admitted ballot papers "Can be examined". When is it allowed to be examined? and for what reasons?

So.. is our vote truly secret? Well, your guess is as good as mine.

posted by flioe @ 7:48 PM