‘Postal votes cannot be traced back to voters’

KUCHING: Postal votes cannot be traced back to individual voters as they are treated with as much scrutiny as votes cast on polling day to ensure the votes are kept confidential.

Election Commission (EC) state director Datu Takun Sunggah told The Borneo Post this recently to clarify concerns over voting confidentiality, which have been circulating online.

“Postal voting is not the same as early voting. The main difference is that when you are entitled to vote by post, your finger will not be inked. Voters whether in Malaysia or overseas also have to apply beforehand to be postal voters,” he said.

Early voting on April 30 is for those required to be on duty during the elections, such as army personnel and their spouses, General Operations Force (GOF) personnel and their spouses, and the police.

Postal voting can be conducted earlier, although the votes will only be tallied on polling day after the polls have closed.

To vote by post, Takun explained that each postal voter in Malaysia will be issued a ballot paper, an identity declaration form called Form 2, and two envelopes marked A and B respectively.

The ballot, identity declaration form and Envelope A should all bear the same serial number.

The postal voter must complete and sign Form 2 in front of a witness to verify that they have indeed received their ballot paper and Envelope A.

Once the voter has marked their ballot paper, the said ballot paper will be sealed in Envelope A.

Envelope A and the completed Form 2 will then be placed in Envelope B, before being sealed in a postage free envelope also provided by the EC.

All envelopes must reach the Returning Officer (RO) of their constituency before 5pm on polling day.

During the counting process, Form 2 will be separated from Envelope A to ensure that individual voters cannot be identified through the serial numbers, thus ensuring the confidentiality of each vote.

The common misconception is that postal voters are required to mark their ballot in front of the witness who also signs Form 2, the identity declaration form.

Takun explained that at no time is the postal voter required to mark their ballot paper in front of the witness, who is only required to verify that the postal voter is who they say they are, that they have received the postal vote and that the voter has signed the declaration form in front of the witness.

When the RO receives Envelope B through post, they will place it inside a sealed ballot box which will only be opened in the presence of counting agents appointed by candidates or election agents after the polls have closed on voting day.

“There is no way where Form 2 can be compared with the ballot paper. The process is witnessed by the appointed agent, or even the candidates themselves,” explained Takun, disputing allegations that postal votes can be tampered with or traced back to individual voters.

“If any EC personnel tries any hanky-panky, we have witnesses there.”

Once the polls have closed, appointed personnel will take out Form 2 and compare its serial number with the serial number on Envelope A. If the numbers match, Form 2 and Envelope A containing the ballot paper will be placed in two separate trays.

Missing or uncompleted forms as well as mismatched serial numbers will cause the postal vote concerned to be rejected.

This procedure is repeated until all Form 2 and Envelope A have their serial numbers verified and they are separated from each other in their respective trays.

After that, all Form 2 must be sealed away in another envelope before each Envelope A can be opened and the ballot inside extracted.

The serial number on the ballot is only compared with the serial number on Envelope A to ensure that they match before they are placed in another sealed ballot box.

At no point is the ballot directly compared with Form 2, which contains all the voter’s information, thus ensuring that each vote remains confidential.

Once all the ballots have been collected, the box is opened and the votes tallied.