Special polling arrangements piloted at nursing homes to be discontinued

Special arrangements piloted in the 2023 Presidential Election to help less-mobile seniors vote at nursing homes will be discontinued, said the Elections Department (ELD) in a statement on Oct 15.

- Shermaine Ang

This comes after it reviewed the pilot, and in the light of the added operational complexities to implement such arrangements for a general election. Nursing home residents can continue to vote at their allocated polling stations.

In 2023, polling stations were set up for the first time at 31 nursing homes for the presidential election.

Mobile polling teams also went to the bedside of bedridden residents to help them to vote. The pilot benefited 4,087 voters.

ELD said feedback from election officials and political party representatives was that many of the nursing home residents did not understand why they were voting nor the significance of their votes.

Consequently, 15 per cent of the votes cast at nursing homes were rejected, primarily due to blank votes. This compares with 2 per cent of votes rejected generally, said ELD.

There were concerns that voting secrecy could be compromised even though certain measures were taken, given the close proximity of the beds to one another. These included providing portable lap booths that shielded the front and sides of the table when voters marked their ballot papers and requiring all election officials to step away as the voters did so.

The pilot was operationally challenging and resource-intensive, said ELD.