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SINGAPORE – Precautionary measures in place to protect voters during the Covid-19 outbreak reduced voting efficiency and led to long lines at some polling stations, the Elections Department (ELD) said on Thursday (September 10). ).
For example, the slots assigned to voters in the July 10 elections failed to spread voter turnout throughout the day.
More resources should have been devoted to large polling stations, ELD added in a statement, noting that there were long lines at 22 of the 25 polling stations serving more than 4,400 voters.
He laid out the results of his review on the reasons behind the unusually long lines observed at polling stations on Election Day, as well as the steps he will take to “correct” them for future elections.
After the election, the department apologized for the inconvenience caused to voters and promised to look into the matter.
On Thursday, it said longer-than-usual queues were seen at about 18 percent of polling stations (199 out of 1,097) in the morning, but the situation had improved in most schools by 11 a.m. the morning.
About 6 percent of all polling stations continued to have long lines in the afternoon, and 4 percent saw long lines during the day.
For future elections, the ELD said it will increase its pool of manpower and equipment, including providing more electronic recording devices.
It will also reduce the number of voters in the large polling stations and review the need for time slots.
A survey conducted by the government’s feedback unit Reach found that three out of 10 voters were dissatisfied with their voting experience, which the ELD said is “not acceptable.”
Voter turnout is not evenly distributed
Despite the morning slots being allocated to high-level voters, a third of the voters who showed up at Singapore polling stations were not seniors, ELD said.
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.
The ELD acknowledged that, in hindsight, it shouldn’t have rallied all the high-level voters in the morning.
You will see what is the best way to distribute to older and non-older voters in the time slots in the future.
The ELD also noted that other stations with significantly higher proportions of younger voters also saw long lines in the afternoon due to the large number of voters and the smaller seven-hour voting window.
This window excludes morning slots reserved for seniors and special voting time from 7 pm to 8 pm reserved for Singaporeans who comply with their stay-at-home notice.
Safe handling measures
The ELD had implemented several safe management measures to ensure that voters could vote safely, such as taking their temperatures, requiring voters to wear disposable gloves, and sanitizing their hands.
These measures took additional time, he said.
The requirement that voters stay one meter apart also contributed to the long lines, the ELD added.
“To reduce wait time, ELD eliminated the requirement to wear disposable gloves in the early part of the morning of voting day, since voters would have already sanitized their hands. With this, the situation of the lines in the Most polling stations improved significantly at 11am.
“However, the other necessary precautionary measures (taking temperatures, sanitizing hands and ensuring a safe distancing between voters) meant that voters, in general, spent more time queuing and voting, compared to past elections.” .
Resources in the large polling stations could have been better distributed
There were 1,097 polling stations in this year’s general elections, down from 832 in 2015, and there was an average of 2,400 voters for each college. About 36,000 election officials were deployed to the stations, a 20 percent increase from 2015.
The ELD said 25 polling stations, or about 2.3 percent of all colleges, served more than 4,400 voters, and 22 of the 25 had long lines.
There were also several polling stations serving a larger number of voters in previous general elections, ELD noted, adding that size alone is not a factor for long lines.
“The size combined with the precautionary measures must have compounded the situation,” said the ELD.
“Some locals also had two polling stations, and the two queues merged at a distance from the voting area, lengthening the queues even further.”
The department said the 25 largest polling stations should have received more election officials or electronic recording devices.
Problems with electronic recording devices
The ELD said the original plan, before Covid-19 hit, was for election officials to scan voters’ NRICs.
“However, with the Covid-19 situation, voters were asked to self-scan their NRICs. ELD intended to do roving presentations to familiarize voters with the electronic registration device, but they had to be canceled due to the Covid-19 situation.
“As a result, voters were unfamiliar with electronic registration devices and this process took longer than planned.”
Reach survey finds dissatisfaction is linked to longer waiting time
A survey commissioned by ELD and conducted by Reach found that seven out of 10 respondents were satisfied with their polling station experience.
Those who voted in schools and clubs or community centers, which generally house polling stations that serve a larger number of voters, indicated that they had a poorer voting experience due to the time it took to vote.
The survey was conducted between July 23-30 and involved more than 1,000 Singaporeans over the age of 21. The results were weighted by gender, race and age to ensure that they are demographically representative.
Approximately 78% of the respondents felt that the voting process was well organized. About 17% were neutral and 4% disagreed.
When asked if election officials were helpful to voters in carrying out their electoral duties, 77 percent of those surveyed agreed, while 20 percent were neutral and 4 percent disagreed.
About 80 percent of the voters surveyed said they spent less than 30 minutes voting. Another nine percent said it took 45 minutes or more to vote.
Voter satisfaction dropped significantly when voters had to wait longer to vote. The ELD noted that a “cliff effect” was observed when the voting time reached 30 minutes.
While 84 percent of voters who took less than 10 minutes agreed they were satisfied with their overall polling station experience, only 54 percent of those who took 30 to 44 minutes agreed.
Only one in ten of those who took more than an hour to vote said they were satisfied.
The ELD apologized for the long lines and thanked voters for their patience.
“We would like to assure voters that ELD will improve our systems and processes as we prepare for future elections,” he said.
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