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SINGAPORE: Insufficient resources at large polling stations, uneven voter turnout, and the need for COVID-19 security measures contributed to “abnormally long lines” at some polling stations during the 2020 general election, it said Thursday. the Elections Department (ELD). (September, 10th).
Local voter turnout at 95.63% was the highest since the 1997 general election.
There were “longer than usual queues” at 199 of the 1,097 polling stations on Election Day. “However, 68 polling stations saw long lines held in the afternoon and 47 polling stations (had) long lines during the day,” ELD said in its review.
COVID-19 SECURITY MEASURES NEEDED
Necessary COVID-19 safe handling measures were among the reasons for the delays, the department said.
Measures such as taking temperatures, putting on disposable gloves and disinfecting hands, as well as the requirement of a safe distance of 1 m contributed to lengthening the queues.
“These measures were necessary and effective … There were no reported cases of COVID-19 in the community affecting voters and election officials as a result of their participation in GE2020,” ELD said.
“However, precautionary measures also contributed to reducing the efficiency of the surveys.”
READ: GE2020: ELD apologizes for polling station queues, says glove requirement contributed to long wait times
To reduce wait time, ELD removed the requirement to wear disposable gloves in the early morning of Election Day, as “voters would have already sanitized their hands.”
The queue situation at most polling stations improved significantly at 11 a.m., ELD said.
LARGE VOTING STATIONS
Twenty-five large polling stations should have been better resourced with more election officials or electronic recording devices.
In GE2020, there were 1,097 polling stations, up from 832 in GE2015, to allow for safe distancing. A total of 36,000 election officials were deployed, 20% more than in GE2015.
The median number of voters per polling place was about 2,400.
However, 25 polling stations had more than 4,400 voters, of which 22 experienced long lines of voters.
“There were also a number of large (polling stations) in previous GEs, so size alone was not a factor in the long queues. But size combined with precautionary measures must have aggravated the situation,” ELD said. .
“Some locals also had two (polling stations), and the two queues merged at a distance from the voting area, lengthening the queues even further.”
ELD proposes to increase the reserve of manpower and equipment for future elections.
READ: GE2020: ELD to Conduct Voter Poll on Polling Place Experience
“We will increase the reserve pool of EOs, who can be rapidly deployed to (polling stations) to augment equipment on site to handle contingencies, including any unforeseen build-up in queues,” ELD said.
It will also provide more electronic logging devices and put in place “stronger redundancies” to replace faulty devices.
Problems with electronic recording devices were reported in GE2020. The pre-COVID-19 plan was for election officials to scan voters’ NRICs.
“However, with the COVID-19 situation, voters were asked to self-scan their NRICs,” ELD said, adding that some voters were unfamiliar with the devices.
The department intended to hold road shows to familiarize voters with the devices, but they had to be canceled amid the pandemic.
“For GE2020, the procurement of electronic logging devices was done before COVID-19, and the vendor was unable to supply more devices to create a comfortable buffer in time to equal the higher number of PSs due to the COVID-19 situation.” added. OLD AGE.
The department proposes that the number of voters in the big polling stations be reduced in future elections.
“Whenever possible, ELD will split the large polling stations. By GE2020, the largest polling stations in the empty pavilions and HDB pavilions were divided in two due to their small available spaces, but the largest polling stations in schools and community clubs don’t, “the department said. .
If the stations cannot be divided, the large stations will be “better organized and have resources” for future elections.
READ: Woman unable to vote on polling day due to ‘human error and lack of communication’: ELD
THE ALLOCATED TIME BANDS DID NOT WORK
Voter turnout was not evenly distributed across voting hours, despite allotted voting time slots that were introduced in GE2020.
ELD recommended morning slots were assigned to older voters, but a third of morning voters were non-older voters.
The higher concentration of high-level voters in the morning also slowed the rate of voter flow, as more of them required the support and assistance of election officials.
At the same time, some polling stations with significantly high proportions of younger voters also saw queues in the afternoon, due to large voter turnout and the smaller 7-hour voting window, after excluding the morning window reserved for seniors and 7 pm 20:00 special voting time.
As such, “the allocated slots failed to distribute voter turnout evenly throughout the day,” ELD said.
Should slot allocation continue in future elections, ELD said it will allocate fewer voters in the morning, to provide a “comfortable margin” for other voters voting outside of their time slot, as voters generally prefer the window in the morning. .
“In hindsight, we shouldn’t have rallied all the older voters in the morning,” ELD said.
“Moving forward, we will see how best to distribute older and non-older voters across time slots. Given our aging population, we will also review logistics (for example, wheelchairs and seat availability), and the location and configuration of our PSs to ensure they are well accessible to our older voters. “
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of GE2020 and its developments
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