11th hour rule change protects ballot secrecy

| 13/04/2021
Cayman News Service
Supervisor of Elections Wesley Howell

(CNS): A small but important amendment was made to the rules governing elections in the Cayman Islands this week in order to protect the secrecy of the ballot at the count on Wednesday night. The Election Act Rules were changed by Cabinet at the eleventh hour to allow postal and mobile station ballots to be mixed with ballots in Election Day boxes prior to the start of any count so that agents, candidates and others present at the count will not be able to work out who did or did not vote for them via mobile and postal voting.

Supervisor of Elections Wesley Howell had put forward the change to protect voting secrecy when it became apparent that in some constituencies the small number of postal and mobile votes meant that an individual count of each box could allow people to infer the identity of voters and how they cast their ballots. He noted that this was also a recommendation that had been previously made by international election observers.

“Secrecy of the vote is the cornerstone of any democracy and it is essential that we be vigilant in its protection whatever circumstances may arise. Given the low number of mobile and postal ballots cast in some electoral districts in this election, we realised there would be an issue and took prompt steps to address it,” Howell said.

See Howell explain the change below on the GIS video:


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Category: Election News

Comments (5)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    The portion of the Elections Law which deals with a voters address/residence is FLAWED and MUST quickly be corrected! I’m sure there are many other flaws in that Law, like many of our Laws, – written by law students!

    Someone I know had their intended vote taken away (they didn’t know the Elections Office had listed their temporary residence as their official address – it was not). So they were not allowed to vote for their desired candidate, in the constituency where they officially reside and has always been registered. Luckily, they liked a candidate in their “new” constituency. But that decision was MADE by the Election staff who were updating info – not by the Voter herself!!

    I was told that some people had to change their address multiple times, one voter had to change 3 times in 6 weeks! Pure stress for voters and unnecessary extra work for Election officials!!

    Something HAS to be wrong with that part of the Law.

    Place of residence DOES NOT necessarily mean Official address!! Temporary residences actually exist – house sitting, month-by-month rentals, etc…

  2. Anonymous says:

    If the ppm made a last minute amendment there can be NO GOOD behind it. This is concerning very very concerning

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  3. Anonymous says:

    I for one am so nervous that this election when the PPM are likely to lose many members we have no overseas observers and now they are allowed to put a bunch of ballots INTO the box?????

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  4. Anonymous says:

    There will be postal ballots that are post marked today but not back by tomorrow’s count, let alone in the ballot box for the district…how do those get counted if they are not back by the time counting begins tomorrow evening? Sounds fishy, but I guess these things make sense to “observers” 2000 miles away.

    • Anonymous says:

      They never were going to be counted if they weren’t in-hand at the elections office (returning officer) before tomorrow. SO this change of dumping them into the box with the other ballots changes nothing regarding when the postal ballots had to be received.