The secret ballot, it's the bedrock of our democracy and the guarantee of all free and fair elections...but is your vote really secret. It's a question that was raised before the last election and this week, it has consumed the talk show circuit. The problem is that, as prescribed by law, ballots have serial numbers and, critics argue, politicos can trace that number right back to the voter. Doubters of the scare say that would require a level of orchestration that's improbable and just about impossible on an elections day when so much is afoot. As the debate rages in the public domain, the Chief Elections Officer today called a press conference to assure voters that their vote is secret and the ballot boxes secure. The ballot box issue comes up because there are new transparent ballot boxes, that since last election replaced the old wooden ones.
Stuart Leslie, Chief Elections Officer
"Let me give the assurance of the Commission that your ballot is secret. No one can tell how you vote. The assumption is that the presiding officer who has the ballot book in front of him or her is giving you the number of your ballot paper sequentially. The first flaw in that argument is that there is an assumption that I will know that Alfonso Noble got 003 ballot number. How am I going to know this, unless there is some of collusion. The relationship between the presiding officer and scrutineers and where they are located in the polling room during the time of voting does not allow for the scrutineers to actually see the serialization that is on the ballot, the serial number and so that is the first thing. The second thing is that the presiding officers are trained that they are not to call out serial numbers during the voting unless it's a voter who has voted without and ID. And thirdly, in the training of these presiding officers, it has been made very clear that they are not supposed to be using the sequential, they can jump over a book and come back to another number and so on. We would not want for an 18 year old, a young voter whose is voting for the first time to feel that or she is disenfranchised or would stay away from the polls on election day because they feel somehow or the other there is a conspiracy out there to track how he or she is voting. What a sad thing it would be. It is important for all of us, we are all responsible in this process to make sure that we go out there and tell people that your vote is secret. And at the end of the day, as Belizeans like to say, you know Belizeans like to say at the end of day so I borrowed a Belizeanism, at the end of the day Alfonso Noble as a voter has a ballot paper and what he chooses to do with that ballot paper is his right. Again this morning with the media there and your organization was represented. We had the demonstration where we showed the security and integrity of the ballot box; how it is sealed, how we clip the seals in to place. We've used these boxes before in the city council elections in 2003 and we had absolutely no problems with it. They aren't made in Belize, they are boxes that are standardized, they are used internationally. You see them used in elections all over the place, including even in Iraq, and so we have every confidence that those boxes are sturdy, they're made of flexi-glass."
As part of the run up to municipal elections, voter identification cards can be picked up from Elections and Boundaries offices countrywide up to 5:30 pm tomorrow.
