#CaymanIslands – October 24, 2019 – The integrity of our voting system is built on the secrecy of the vote.
The Cayman Islands Elections Law
contains legal and procedural safeguards to avoid revealing the identity of
voters when the ballot is being marked or counted.
The current Cayman Islands
Elections Law (2017 Revision) has the following legal provisions:
1. Voters mark their ballots alone
in a voting booth, except when assisted voting is requested and authorised by
the voter.
2. Ballots are appropriately folded
to conceal the voter’s choice before the ballots are deposited in the ballot
box.
3. The ballots are designed to
ensure that the voter cannot be identified at the time of the count.
4. If the voter marks the ballots
with any identifiable marks the ballot is rejected. For example, if a voter
writes his or her name on a ballot, that ballot is then rejected.
Additionally, The Referendum
(People Initiated Referendum Regarding the Port) Bill 2019 calls for a national
count.
This means all ballots cast in the
19 electoral districts will be collected at a central location for counting.
The ballots, including mobile and postal ballots, will be mixed and divided
into random segments for counting. The totals from each segment will be added
together to give one national result. It is, therefore, impossible to determine
how any individual or group voted.
According to the Administration and
Cost of Elections (ACE) Project, an international body aimed at supporting
credible and transparent electoral processes, voting secrecy is vital for
fairness.
“A secret vote is an essential
integrity safeguard because it allows voters to cast their ballot in full
independence. If a vote is not secret or can be identified during vote
counting, some people might be intimidated into not voting as they had
intended. Secrecy makes intimidation or bribery less effective,” the
international body explains.
The systems in the Cayman Islands
that will be utilised for the referendum are in keeping with these
internationally accepted principles. The Referendum Bill and the Elections Law
(2017) provides for the appointment of observers, local and international, to
ensure that the referendum is carried out accordingly.
Any voter who feels threatened or
unduly pressured to vote, not vote, vote a certain way, or to reveal how they
voted, should report their concerns to the Elections Office or the Royal Cayman
Islands Police.
The Supervisor of Elections, Wesley
Howell, assures voters in the Cayman Islands that the Elections Law and the
Elections Office staff take every precaution to ensure that votes will remain
secret at the time of the count, regardless if the vote is submitted by postal
ballot, mobile ballot or is cast in person on Referendum Day.
Mr Howell also added that Elections
Office polling teams have been training since September to ensure that the
Cayman Islands Elections Office continues to plan and execute elections and
referendums that meet or exceed international best practices. He is confident
that this referendum will be executed with the same quality as previous ones.