From Brendan McDonald.
IT seems that there is a lot of confusion regarding the rules and regulations under which the electorate are asked to comply.

Listening to BBC Radio Jersey’s excellent coverage on election night I could not believe the amount of callers who encountered problems at their polling station.

The biggest complaint was about the pencils or the lack of them and the refusal of election officials to allow voters to use a ball-point pen.

One caller to the phone-in on Thursday said he would like to know how many people unwittingly used their own pens unknown to parish officials and walked out thinking that they had voted correctly, when it now has been revealed that his or her vote was considered a spoiled vote. If that is the case and if many people used a pen unwittingly those spoiled papers could make the difference between winning and losing in a close contest.

Another complaint that came to light was the amount of people who were asked if they wanted a voting slip on CET. That line of questioning, it turns out, was not proper procedure, as it meant that if you replied ‘no’, for instance, you were telling officials what your choice was.

It is, therefore, imperative that someone in authority, the Attorney General, law officers or senior parish officials, make the proper procedure known before the Deputies’ election, otherwise there will be further confusion at the polling stations.
114 Don Farm,
St Brelade.