Politicians often come under immense pressure for things that are not properly done or not done at all. We call on the politicians to fix everything. When they get involved, many will see it as interfering with operational matters. We have leaders in the various organizations who can contribute more to improving these organization. The need to work with the management and workers to improve the level of service to the country. Far more can be done by the public sector.
I have a few suggestions for the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ). Note that what was said in my opening paragraph was not intended to target the EOJ but merely to highlight the need for all public organizations to improve their level of contribution to society. Today I am focusing on the EOJ. Let me state categorically that the EOJ has done well over the years.
Let's look at a few things the Electoral Office of Jamaica should consider:
- The voters' database should be updated automatically by other relevant public sector systems.
- Citizens should be updated on all updates.
- In accordance with the law, citizens who are not residents of the country should be marked as inactive. The immigration system should update the voters' database to indicate who is living here. The RGD system should update the electoral system when someone dies.
- Registration of voters should be a real-time matter that should be linked to the Registrar General's Department.
- All records should be uniquely linked by NIDs when fully implemented or by our TRN.
- All records should have an email address.
- Voter information should be sent by email to all voters at least a month before an election. The information should state the voter's name, address, polling division, and polling station. The information should be the exact information stored in the voters' database.
- All presiding officers should have a cellular phone that can be used to check for a voter's name in the voters' database. Voters should be able to check for the names by entering their TRN and their date of birth. This would be a more accurate way of entering the query information.
- The pictures and other vital information for all candidates should be stored in a computer database.
- Pictures of all candidates, along with their names and the constituencies that they are representing, should be displayed on the Internet. Users should be able to display all candidates or use a query to see the candidates for a parish or a constituency.
- Allow persons to make reports about any incident using an EOJ cellular phone portal.
- The EOJ should have a section of their website where persons can get historical information about candidates who won seats in previous elections and the number of votes they received. This should be presented in an attractive, user-friendly manner. Media persons and persons doing reseach locally and overseas would find this useful
- Develop a graphical interface showing a map of Jamaica, showing the constituencies that citizens could use to track the ballot counting. This would show the candidate's names, votes counted, and the ballot boxes received.
- Chairs should be provided at the stations for the elderly and for those who have physical challenges.
- If a station is crowded, then there should be a line for those who do not have a voter ID card.
I made these suggestions based on some challenges that have been reported to me. One lady, for example, was unable to vote because her name was not found on the voters' list at the polling station, even though she had her voter's ID with her. I checked and found out that her name was not located because the hyphen between her maiden and married names was omitted when the information was entered in the query area. For the birthday day, we should have separate input areas for day, month, and year and not one input area. Currently, if the '/' is not used to separate the day, month, and year, the system will not accept it. Let's Keep It Simple for the voter.
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I concur with much of what has been stated here, but take issue with the following:
ReplyDelete1. To ensure credibility and confidence, the voters' database should not be influenced by or inputted from any other entity but the EOJ. The EOJ must however have access to or be informed by the other databases to maintain currency.
2. PICA has no ability to determine whom is or is not living here. PICA can give you an address on file but is in no position to give an assurance of continuing residency.
3. As far as I know, the RGD is required to provide details of death information to the EOJ. It has been certainly provided in the past.
4. Registration of voters should remain solely that of the EOJ. That at least lays responsibility and accountability one one agency.
5. I concur with the use of NIDS, when properly and fully implemented, as a part of the verification process.
6. Persons with e-mail addresses, in my anecdotal opinion, are in the minority. To require an email address mandates that all persons be internet compliant. My view is that such a requirement is impractical.
7. Often, elections are called at less than a month's notice. The voter information should be sent out within 48 hours of an election being called/announced.
7. I am completely against any voter information being stored on a Presiding Officer or any EOJ official's cell phone. There is a secure electronic database captured on secure laptops/tablets controlled, programmed and issued by the EOJ, and used solely for electronic voting at Polling Stations. The data cannot be copied, changed, manipulated nor captured by the users. These are the only instruments on which voter information is used in the electoral process and should be available.
8. The pictures and voter information is already captured on a data base held at the EOJ.
9. I agree that the details of all candidates should be published in the two major daily newspapers and made available to the radio/electronic media houses within 72 hours of nomination day.
10. While the details of voter counts is the purview of the EOJ, the media houses also have that information and should be the ones putting it out. I do not believe tat the EOJ should have any responsibility for promulgating that as part of their pre-election public information.
11.As far as I remember, EOJ contact information was published and made available to the media. If it wasn't, it should be.
John McFarlane
Thanks for your comments. Please note that suggestions made in the article do not imply that all systems will remain the same. PICA systems can record and should record all persons who depart and arrive on the island. You have APIS which send information about all passengers on a flight to the countries of arrival. Those who manage border controls can and do record when you enter and leave a country. All births and deaths are supposed to be registered with the RGD. It is better to use systems at other relevant organizations to update your electoral system or to alert you of changes for citizens, rather than having a system that is not timely updated with dead persons on the list and allowing persons who have been away for years to jump on a plane and come back to Jamaica and vote. The present system allows anybody to register and vote because citizens are not required to give proof of citizenship before being registered. There is also no link between the EOJ and the RGD to ensure that only citizens are allowed to vote. Note that I believe that non-Jamaicans should not be allowed to vote in our elections. Those who hold citizenship in another country should not be allowed to sit in the house of Parliament. The EOJ was set up when technology was not advanced. The available technology and security systems allow far a more secure system. Cell phones have penetrated the whole country so it is easy to have an email address. Thanks that we have free wifi. Just so you know, currently, databases do not reside on cell phones. The cell phone is used to access the data securely.
ReplyDeleteIn a modern computerized system, the RGD would not be required to provide data on deaths. The RGD system would automatically indicate to the EOJ system that someone has died. This standalone EOJ database is not accurate. It cannot even produce a current votes list.
ReplyDeleteIt's good that we are having this discussion. All efforts should be made to ensure that we continually review and update our electoral process as needed.
ReplyDelete