E-tabulating machines only count votes | More public demonstrations on February 10
As questions still surround the new electronic tabulating machines that will be used in the elections for the first time in BVI history, persons are being given another opportunity to test the equipment ahead of the February 25 general elections.
This second round of public demonstrations of the machines will be held at the Central Administration Complex in Road Town on Sunday, February 10 from 4 pm to 7 pm.
“Testing is highly encouraged. Shading of the ballot is also highly encouraged but the ‘X’ will also be accepted. All are invited to attend,” the Office of the Supervisor of Elections said in a media release on Tuesday.
In a previous press conference with Governor Augustus Jaspert this week, Supervisor of Elections Juliette Penn made it clear that the machines are NOT used to enter votes, they are only used to count them.
“The ballots are going to be done manually,” she said. “We are not voting on a machine. It’s not a voting machine, it’s a tabulating machine.”
“You’re going to get your ballots the same way, you’re going to go into the booth, and you’re going to make your mark.”
One tabulating machine will be assigned to each of the 19 polling stations on Election Day.
Penn said as opposed to previous elections where two ballot papers were used — one for the district candidate and another for the At-Large candidates — only one ballot paper will be used for these elections.
That single ballot will contain the names of the respective district candidates as well as the At-Large candidates.
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Voting machines= stolen elections
Its not a voting machine, it’s a counting machine.
with 30 to 35 thousand people and below 10,000 qualify to vote you need machine to count vote.
you go to be kidding.a five year old can count that with a pencil and paper, come on.
A BANK TELLER CAN COUNT 10,000 DOLLARS IN A FEW MINUTES SO WHY IT WILL TAKE THEM A WHOLE DAY TO COUNT 10,000 VOTES?
It’s more like 50,000 votes. Each person have up to 5 votes. It takes hours to count by hand. Please don’t compare it to a bank teller counting money. It is totally different.
Well, one would think that 10,000 votes can be tabulated quite quickly. The truth is history has shown the vote counting has gone on way too long in the past on election night.
With that in mind, I personally see a benefit to having the machines tabulating the results quickly once voting has ended.
In this particular election with an unusual number of parties and candidates contesting, I think the voting machine will help to determine the winners and the looser quite quickly.
We all want to go to bed before midnight knowing who won, and who will lead the next government come February 25th. No need for pencil and paper to drag this thing out.
Let’s get those results quickly preferably before midnight so that some of us can either party or start taking our anti-depressants.
I personally need to know the results quickly so that I can decide if I should have a glass of champagne or take an anti-depressant before I go to bed.
My concern is with the 5 votes on one ballot. I hope people are given proper instructions and that this one ballot is very clearly marked because otherwise I would imagine there would be quite a few spoiled ballots. We need to bear in mind there are many voters who are not that literate and may not understand certain things so we cannot take it for granted.
@ Really…do you forget that we were up until morning last election counting votes when we had to wait for so long for ballot boxes from places like Anegada and Jost Van Dyke to come in…if machines can eliminate the long wait what is the problem?
How long is the trip from JVD to town?
How long is the trip from Anegada to town?
Way to long
The BVI is a joke. There are several BVIislanders abroad including student who would love to participate in our democratic process by voting but can’t because they are no provisions to allow them to do so. What a joke. Sad to say that my country is still backwards..