An Appeal to the Voting Public Ahead of Election Day

Josephine Tamai

Participating in the general elections during COVID times will be a historic first for everyone, including voters and logisticians.  While the public officers assigned to administer the process have been adequately prepared, the Chief Elections Officers is urging the public to take all precautionary measures to ensure that they are equally protected and that all efforts are made to ensure that all protocols are followed, including social distancing.

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer

“We need to ask the support of everybody, both the public officers and the voters.  In terms of public officers, we’re ensuring that public officers, and yes it’s law, that they must wear their face masks.  We’re also ensuring that everybody who enters that polling station is being sanitized.  So you can’t go and say, “Well, I just sanitized my hands so I don’t need to get sanitized again.”  The sanitizing officer will still insist that you are being sanitized prior to you going into that polling station.  When you go into the polling station and you identify yourself, your name will be marked off the register.  Once we have been able to verify who you say you are, we have the binders there to verify the persons as well.  When you remove your masks for like ten seconds just to verify and to say that is Jules, because, you know sometimes when we have a face mask your features don’t necessarily show that that’s the person, you don’t recognize persons sometimes.  Again, your hand will be re-sanitized before you actually dip your finger into the electoral ink and before you get that ballot paper and a sanitized pencil for you to use.  So we’re putting in protocols, so we’re asking persons to please ensure that you follow these protocols strictly and when you go to vote, maintain the social distancing.  Don’t be talking to your friends for a very long time, go out, cast your vote and then go home.”