By Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorDIRECTOR OF Elections, Danville Walker, yesterday described the electronic voting exercise carried out for the first time ever in Jamaica and used as a pilot in the St. Andrew Eastern constituency as excellent.
Addressing reporters at the Electoral Office of Jamaica's (EOJ) election centre on Hope Road, St. Andrew, Mr. Walker said that even though there were "a few glitches", they weren't enough to derail what he called the manner in which voting will be done in future elections in Jamaica.
"It went better than we could have expected ...much better," explained an elated Mr. Walker.
"Yes there were a few glitches, we had a number of computers breaking down but our technology guys sorted the problem out rather quickly, allowing voting to continue."
The Government provided the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) with the funding, in its 2002-2003 Budget, to conduct
a test of the Electronic Identification of the Voter and Ballot Issuing System (EIVBIS). However, due to what EAC chairman Errol Miller described as "technical and legal problems," the system was not ready for use in last October's general election.
It was agreed then that the fingerprint identification machines would be used on an experimental basis in a single constituency - St. Andrew Eastern - during the Local Government elections.
How does it work? The voter places a finger on the fingerprint scanner which records and compares the information to a database containing relevant data of the person. If the information in the database matches with the fingerprint, the vote is approved. However, if the voter is rejected, the presiding officer would revert to using the back-up system whereby the person is asked certain questions pertinent to his/her identity.
CLEANER ELECTIONS
"To ensure the holding of cleaner elections, this is the way to go," Mr. Walker added. "We used this as a pilot to get valuable information on the way forward. There will be changes of course. We will gather a lot of information in terms of deployment and how to train our people."
Pressed on why it couldn't have been used in more if not all the other constituencies, Mr. Walker said there was no need to rush or pressure the system. "What we have accomplished here will pave the way for an exciting evaluation period as we prepare for the next general elections," he said. Forty machines, acquired at a cost of US$482,000 ($28m) were used in the experiment.
