Post title ripped off Yawning Bread.
I was a volunteer Polling Agent at Singapore's 2011 General Elections on May 7th. Contrary to what you may be thinking, a Polling Agent doesn't actually administer the polls. He simply observes the conduct of the polls at a particular polling station on behalf of one of the contesting parties. I was a volunteer for the Worker's Party (because they were the only opposition party contesting my constituency). Let's leave aside my political views here because the point of this post is simply to describe my observations of the day's happenings and some of it is actually funny (I hope!).
Before you ask whether this post violates the Oath of Secrecy I took before being allowed to act as a Polling Agent, please read this clarification by Yawning Bread:
The secrecy oath is confined to article 56 of the Parliamentary Elections Act which basically says that we should do nothing to aid in the abuse of the voting process by communicating with the voter or relaying out to the public any details of any specific vote, etc. Look at each line of the law and ask yourself: Did I violate that sentence in the law with my article — yes/no?
QUOTE:
Subsection (3) Subject to subsection (3A), every officer, clerk, interpreter, candidate and agent in attendance at a polling station shall maintain, and aid in maintaining, the secrecy of the voting in the station, and shall not communicate, except for some purpose authorised by law, before the poll is closed, to any person any information as to the name or number on the register of electors of any elector who has or has not applied for a ballot paper or voted at that station, or as to the official mark.
(3A) The total number of voters who have voted at any station at any time before the poll is closed may, in the discretion of the presiding officer, be divulged to the candidate or his agent authorised to attend at the polling station.
(4) No such officer, clerk, interpreter, candidate or agent, and no person shall —
(a) attempt to obtain in the polling station information as to the candidate or group of candidates, for whom any voter in the station is about to vote or has voted; or
(b) communicate at any time to any person any information obtained in a polling station as to the candidate or group of candidates, for whom any voter in the station is about to vote or has voted, or as to the number on the back of the ballot paper given to any voter at the station.
(5) Every officer, clerk, interpreter, candidate and agent in attendance at the counting of the votes shall maintain, and aid in maintaining, the secrecy of the voting, and shall not —
(a) attempt to ascertain at the counting the number on the back of any ballot paper; or
(b) communicate any information obtained at the counting as to the candidate or group of candidates, for whom any vote is given by any particular ballot paper.
(6) No person, except a presiding officer acting for a purpose authorised by this Act or a person authorised by the presiding officer and acting for that purpose, shall communicate or attempt to communicate with any voter after the voter has received a ballot paper and before he has placed it in a ballot box, or after the voter has been authorised to use an approved DRE voting machine to mark or record his vote and before he marks or records his vote at the machine, as the case may be.END QUOTE
I don't intend to reveal anyone's vote. In fact, I honestly can't, because I forgot the name of every voter the instant it had been read. Onward ho.
I got to the polling station around 7.50 am and hurried in. Forgetting that it was a public holiday and that I was allowed to park near the polling station along a single-yellow-line stretch, I'd gone searching for a proper carpark. No harm done.
A long line of voters snaked along the street waiting for the gates of the polling station to open at 8. I was a little surprised. I had been assigned to one of the 6 "polling places" in this station. Even though it was barely 8 am, it was extremely hot and humid. Everyone without exception sweating buckets.
Next to me sat a PAP Polling Agent in her early 60s. Kindly smile. A grass-roots worker from the neighbourhood, she told me. Wanted to know if I was a grass-roots political leader. I said no. Didn't tell her I was just curious about the whole process and didn't mind helping out in the bargain. Opposite us sat two civil servants with badges proclaiming them Presiding Officers. There are several Presiding Officers at each polling station and they are the ones actually conducting the poll. They are guided and overseen by a small number of (in this case, two) Returning Officers, who belong to the Elections Department.
When a voter approaches the polling place, the first Presiding Officer looks at the voter's polling card and identification and checks his name and serial number against a list given to each Presiding Officer. Once checked, the second Presiding Officer hands over a ballot paper to the voter and, for some reason I don't understand, reads aloud the voter's name and serial number to no one in particular. The voter then walks to a little desk-like thing, marks his vote and drops his ballot paper in the box. No one, not even the voter's accompaning family members, is allowed to direct the voter to vote for any particular candidate. The only persons allowed to communicate with the voter between the time he receives the ballot paper and the time he drops it into the box are the Presiding Officers, and they are only allowed to explain the process of voting. The Polling Agents are on hand to ensure that these rules are observed though, of course, we have no powers of enforcement.
For the first couple of hours or so, the average age of the voters was well above 50, possibly above 60 even, though one lady looked about 12. Only after about 10.30 am did the average start to drop. Perhaps the elderly wake up earlier. Or they're really eager to vote. Or avoid the late morning heat. Or something. Many voters seemed to be first-timers from the kinds of basic questions they asked. Almost all the Presiding Officers seemed to be first-timers too. To be expected given that prior elections were never as heavily contested as this one.
The Worker's Party (WP) rep who'd assigned me to this station had instructed me that I was not allowed to communicate with any voters. However, I was perfectly entitled to wear blue (the colour of the WP) and smile at people if I wanted to and perhaps this would help tip the balance for an undecided voter. Who knows. I had no problem agreeing to this. It's never been hard for me to beam at perfect strangers so it was fairly easy to elicit smiles from voters. I've no idea if this helped at all. I did have competition though! My PAP companion seemed to know several people in the line and with grandmotherly looks to add to her armoury, she was pretty much invincible when she chose to exert her powers.
The WP Polling Agent in the next booth was an attractive young woman with a sunny smile. Unlike my companion, the middle-aged sleepy-looking PAP volunteer next to her didn't stand a snowflake's chance in hell of competing with her when she tossed her head strategically at an approaching voter. I noticed at least three men reduced to bashful simpers when given the full treatment of her smile. Hilarious. Not that I expected any of this to affect the final result.
Voting instructions were printed on a poster, one for each polling booth. However, their placement made them practically invisible. Not a single voter out of the several hundred I saw noticed the poster where it was placed and several were confused as to what they were supposed to do. I thought at first that perhaps the ballot paper itself would instruct the voters but when I myself voted later, it had no instructions on it. Who does this benefit?
The polling station was efficiently and thoroughly organised for the most part. Complimentary wheelchair assistance was made available to the infirm so that the queue would move quickly, electric lanterns were placed at each desk as a just-in-case measure, several roving Presiding Officers acted as ushers... It was all possibly even a little too efficient because after the initial couple of hours, the number of people staffing the station far outnumbered the voters present. Strangely, no security check was conducted of anyone coming into the polling station even though there were plenty of police available to do the job. I thought this was supposed to be part of the process.
My PAP companion was a bit of a camel in human form. Didn't touch her bottle of water once in four hours and gave me hers when I emptied mine. Astonishing.
This area seemed to have mostly lower-income voters. Many didn't even speak Mandarin so the Presiding Officer had to resort to Hokkien or Teochew (I sometimes can't tell the two apart). Didn't much help me in my task though when they used Mandarin, I managed to catch some of what they said and don't think there was any hanky-panky. A few of the elderly voters came dressed in their best clothes neatly pressed, hair combed neatly, shoes shining and standing to attention as the Presiding Officer checked their identification. Throat-lumpiness. A couple even bowed to the ballot box before they inserted the ballot paper. Bowing isn't common at all in Singapore.
One agitated voter wanted to know whether there was any difference between the two holes poked into the ballot box. He wanted to be sure that his vote wouldn't be counted towards the wrong party simply because he inserted it into the "wrong" hole. He was assured that it was all the same.
My PAP companion of the morning finished her shift at around 2pm and was replaced by a chatty, middle-aged gent. WP didn't have enough volunteers to provide second-shift replacements so we just continued a little longer. My new neighbour was chattier than necessary but I just stood up every now and then ostensibly to stretch my legs. On one occasion, an aged voter needed assistance while marking her vote. As the Presiding Officer instructed her as to the correct voting procedure, I stood up to go closer so I could listen to what was being said (as was my entitlement). Mr PAP began hissing at me at this point and gesturing in an over-friendly manner that I should sit down. Not wanting to tell him to be quiet, I simply ignored him. In any event, the Presiding Officer wasn't actually promoting one candidate over another as I gathered from my minuscule knowledge of Mandarin, so I was satisfied that all was well. I wasn't particularly impressed with the PAP chap though, or with the Presiding Officers present for tolerating his behaviour.
At 8pm, voting officially ended. One of the officers present asked the Polling Agents near her to surrender their badges. The officer near my seat said I could keep mine as a souvenir. There were similar minor inconsistencies throughout the whole process and the occasional cluelessness from a first-time Presiding Officer or novice Returning Officer. However, from what I observed at this polling station, the process was overall free and fair -- within the rules imposed by the government themselves, of course.
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