THE ELECTORAL Advisory Committee (EAC) will spend $36.3 million for a pilot aimed at testing the use of fingerprint-triggered balloting in the Mona and Papine divisions, St. Andrew East constituency, in the upcoming Local Government elections.
Gleaner sources say the money is being spent to acquire 110 machines from United States-based Cogent Inc., the fingerprint technology experts.
The machines will begin arriving in the island in the next two to three weeks, in time for the staff of the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) to be trained to operate them.
Twice postponed, Local Govern-ment elections are due next month, and Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has said there will be no further extensions.
The EAC has asked the Parliament to introduce legislation that will allow the pilot to be conducted. It has suggested that the Act be cited as "the Kingston and St. Andrew (Special Provisions) Act," and shall remain in force until June 30, 2003.
In a report to Parliament which was tabled in the House of Representatives last week, the EAC summarised the steps that would be involved in the process, as follows:
Elector places requested finger on live scan fingerprint device.
If no match is achieved, the computer will prompt elector to place other finger until all available fingers are exhausted.
Once there is a match, the system will issue a ballot and the elector will vote, using that ballot, as under the manual identification system.
If no match is made the alternate identification process will be triggered. The alternative identification process requires the elector to answer questions prompted by the computer regarding specific demographic data. If the questions are correctly answered, a ballot will be issued to the elector who will then proceed to vote.
The close of poll and counting of ballots procedures will remain the same.
According to the EAC report, the provisions of the Act shall apply to elections held for the purpose of electing members to serve in the Council of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation for the electoral divisions of Mona and Papine.
It specifies that candidates, agents of candidates or any elector representing a candidate shall be permitted to examine the equipment provided for the purpose of identifying an elector by fingerprint.
Early last month, Danville Walker, Director of Elections, told The Gleaner that the EAC, on which he sits, was in the process of "tying up the contract negotiations" with Cogent. He revealed then that 110 machines would be used in the pilot, 60 more than was first reported.
It is not immediately clear why St. Andrew East was chosen, but Mr. Walker said last month that the EAC was looking to test as many variables as was possible.
