Strict COVID-19 Protocols for Municipal Elections

Josephine Tamai

Elections and Boundaries also will be very stringent in their enforcement of mask wearing and social distancing, so electors will need to comply to cast their ballots.

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer

“We discussed the protocols that were in place for the General Elections and we realized that what we did then worked extremely well in terms of managing the polling stations. So, that is an area that we agreed it is best for us to proceed as we did with the General Elections. We know that the use of facemask is mandatory, actually it is law, so persons will have to use their facemask and persons will have to sanitize again just before they dip their finger in the indelible ink and the person will use a sanitized pencil at all times. Public officers will be provided with the P.P.E.’s similarly to what we did for the General Elections in order to protect them.  The social distancing is also critical and I know some people said that the elections caused more cases but I will tell you that when it came to the polling station itself and the conduct of the election itself, we don’t have any evidence to say that going out to vote and persons waiting in line and persons casting their vote were actually placed in any situation to catch COVID because all the precautionary measures were in place. We also have to ask the public to do their part as well to ensure that they utilized their facemask and to use it properly.  We have to properly identify voters to ensure that the person who is voting is who they say they are. What we have emphasize though, because persons will be required to momentarily remove it probably for ten seconds maximum and so we are asking that persons do not speak while that mask is being removed. Our public officers are trained to not ask any questions from any voter while that mask is being removed for ten seconds. So, that again is very critical.”