Post-election Musings
I am so sick and tired about the paranoia floating online about the secrecy of voting. Even to this date, when the elections are over, I still stumble upon posts and comments about this topic. My friend's dad went to the extent of warning her to vote for the ruling party and the reason given was "Because you're a civil servant". Ok. As an elections officer who had to work for more than 12 hours on Polling Day, I can confirm that yes, your damn vote is secret.
There are strict rules that ensure every Singaporean gets to vote for whichever party they want. All elections officers are also bound by the Oath of Secrecy, which prevents us from disclosing your vote even if we knew what you voted for. The law ensures that your vote is secret.
The Polling Day experience was extremely enriching. and I was lucky because I had a great team. I've met all kinds of voters - the best Singaporeans and the worst Singaporeans. Although the Polling Stations are open from 8am - 8pm, elections officers have to report at 5+am and for me, I only finished at about 9pm that evening. This was because there was an incident after the Polling Station closed, which prevented us from leaving early.
And can I just say, seriously people, how hard is it to put a damn cross on your ballot slip, properly? There are instructions everywhere! Even if you don't watch TV, or read the papers, everyone around you is talking about it so how can you not know how to vote? And even if you were living in a hole somewhere and do not have access to mainstream media or human contact, where there are 2 boxes, you just mark one! How hard is it?
Anyway, when I got home, despite being dead tired, I stayed up til 3am to watch the results with all my friends on Facebook. All in all, it was an amazing day, but hopefully I won't have to experience it again because it was nerve-wrecking, extremely stressful and tiring.
There are strict rules that ensure every Singaporean gets to vote for whichever party they want. All elections officers are also bound by the Oath of Secrecy, which prevents us from disclosing your vote even if we knew what you voted for. The law ensures that your vote is secret.
The Polling Day experience was extremely enriching. and I was lucky because I had a great team. I've met all kinds of voters - the best Singaporeans and the worst Singaporeans. Although the Polling Stations are open from 8am - 8pm, elections officers have to report at 5+am and for me, I only finished at about 9pm that evening. This was because there was an incident after the Polling Station closed, which prevented us from leaving early.
And can I just say, seriously people, how hard is it to put a damn cross on your ballot slip, properly? There are instructions everywhere! Even if you don't watch TV, or read the papers, everyone around you is talking about it so how can you not know how to vote? And even if you were living in a hole somewhere and do not have access to mainstream media or human contact, where there are 2 boxes, you just mark one! How hard is it?
Anyway, when I got home, despite being dead tired, I stayed up til 3am to watch the results with all my friends on Facebook. All in all, it was an amazing day, but hopefully I won't have to experience it again because it was nerve-wrecking, extremely stressful and tiring.