280 postal ballots already dispatched

(CNS): With ten days left to go before the postal vote application deadline, the Elections Office has already sent out over 280 ballots and has received 81 sealed envelopes from voters in the cruise port referendum. But with government setting the vote just six days before Christmas, those numbers are expected to increase. The Elections Office is also urging people who need to use mobile voting because they are unable to get to the polls because of work, illness or disability to make the application now.

The office began sending out postal ballots on 8 November, but the mobile and postal ballot deadline for applicants, the 7 December, is fast approaching. Voters on Little Cayman registered in the constituency of Cayman Brac West and Little Cayman are urged to apply for mobile voting so they can vote on 12 December at the Public Works Building in Little Cayman from 9am to 1pm.

Postal ballot and mobile voting applications are only valid for one election or referendum. Voters who applied for postal or mobile voting in the 2017 General Election and who wish to vote by either method in the referendum need to complete and submit the relevant application form which are on the Elections Office website.

As required by law, the sealed envelopes containing the returned ballots from voters will be kept in secured postal ballot boxes until they are processed for counting after the polls close on Referendum Day.

Over the last few days some uncertainty has been raised about the vote going ahead on the 19 December as a result of pending legal action by the National Trust and the activists behind the people’s referendum campaign, but Supervisor of Elections Wesley Howell said official voting has already begun.

“Voting in the People-Initiated Referendum started on 8 November. The Elections Office continues to receive postal ballot applications, issue postal ballots and receive sealed postal ballot envelopes from voters in return at this time,” Howell stated in a release.

CNS asked Howell for clarity on what will happen to these sealed postal votes if the courts do stay the polling day and it is moved into the New Year.

“Completed postal ballots that are returned to the Elections Office are stored securely in their covering envelope, under lock and key in sealed postal ballot boxes until the close of the polls when the postal ballots are processed for counting. It is uncertain what impact the legal proceedings filed by the National Trust will have on the votes for persons who are already voting in the Referendum,” he told CNS.