Voting Ballot booklets lost on the highway

LazyLion

LazyLion

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Cape Town - An electoral official has been fired after 10 ballot booklets fell off a vehicle on the N1 in Cape Town on Saturday evening, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), provincial head Courtney Sampson said.

Each booklet has 100 ballot sheets.

The booklets, which were retrieved on Sunday morning, were to be used for the national vote at polling stations in the Milnerton area, Sampson said. He would not be drawn on who the official was, but said the man had been responsible for the distribution of voting materials in the Milnerton area.

The official had been transporting booklets from the IEC offices in Bellville to a storage in Milnerton on Saturday, but when he arrived, found the storage place closed and returned to Bellville.

The official was not accompanied by police while transporting the ballot booklets.

Sampson said the incident was immediately reported when the official realised the booklets were missing.

Sampson said the IEC met representatives of all the political parties on the Provincial Political Party Liaison Committee to discuss the incident. “We assure the public that the incident poses no threat to the electoral process as such instances are easily managed,” he said.

Sampson said the booklets had all been isolated and removed from the allocated election materials.

“These ballots will be replaced by buffer stock. Ballot papers cannot be reproduced,” said Sampson.
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Cape Times
http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/ballot-booklets-lost-on-the-highway-1.1683497
 
Wow this article and the public protectors report on Pansy really makes me wonder if I should even go and stand in the queue on Wednesday.
 
Good to see stern action taken for negligence.
 
ELECTION EVENTS CONCERNING: AGANG

Ballot books that fell off a truck and were later retrieved in Cape Town added to a list of concerning events before elections this week, Agang SA said on Monday.

The party was referring to a number of ballot books that fell off an election vehicle in transit on Sunday.

Western Cape electoral officer Courtney Sampson said the "insignificant" number of books was found with the help of police, who were conducting an investigation.

"We assure the public that the incident poses no threat to the electoral process as such instances are easily managed," he said.

"The ballot papers that have been retrieved have all been isolated and removed from the allocated election materials. These ballots will be replaced by buffer stock."

Agang SA spokesman Mark Peach said it was worrying that opposition parties had seen fit to deface or remove their posters throughout the campaign.

"This weekend, the Eastern Cape Agang SA offices were broken into and a laptop and cellphone stolen in what appears to be a targeted theft as no other valuables in the office were removed," he said.

"The Independent Electoral Commission has been silent on both matters."

The party urged the public to report any untoward behaviour involving election activities to the police or to contact the party directly.


Source : Sapa /je/hdw/th/lp
Date : 05 May 2014 12:26
 
I think we are going to see some blatant vote rigging on Wednesday.
My gardener told me some guy went around in Siclelo last week and wrote down house numbers, telling the people that they'd be able to track who they voted for.
Idiot tried this in the same township that stoned a ANC and a EFF gathering a few weeks ago...
Some friendly taxi drivers eventually 'helped' him out of town.
 
The official had been transporting booklets from the IEC offices in Bellville to a storage in Milnerton on Saturday, but when he arrived, found the storage place closed and returned to Bellville.
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Wow great planning just fill up that truck at my expense again thx and while you're at it give yourself a raise, splendid job
 
Those that don't believe Wednesday will be rigged are in for a surprise
 
On this note, anyone know which accredited neutral observers will be observing and reporting on our elections?
 
They should just issue each ballot with its own unique serial number.

If any get lost en route, they can just blacklist those serial numbers, and discard the matching ballots when counting.
 
The_Librarian said:
They should just issue each ballot with its own unique serial number.

If any get lost en route, they can just blacklist those serial numbers, and discard the matching ballots when counting.
Click to expand...
How are the ballots counted? Do they feed them into a machine that OCR's them or what? One of my parents volunteered in 2004 and she said the counting process involves grouping the ballots into piles, depending on which party was voted for, and then counting each manually. I'm not going to elaborate on some of the eyebrow-raising stories she told about the process - I was wondering whether it is still the same as back then (manual sorting/counting)?
 
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The_Librarian said:
They should just issue each ballot with its own unique serial number.

If any get lost en route, they can just blacklist those serial numbers, and discard the matching ballots when counting.
Click to expand...

This will never be done for obvious reasons.
 
The_Librarian said:
They should just issue each ballot with its own unique serial number.

If any get lost en route, they can just blacklist those serial numbers, and discard the matching ballots when counting.
Click to expand...

My memory may be hazy, but I seem to recall each ballot having a unique serial number in the 2011 municipal elections. If my memory is correct, then this is possible; in fact, the last two paragraphs of the original article alludes to this.
 
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