MARUAH Singapore

Overseas Singaporeans were allowed to vote by post for the first time in the 2023 Presidential Election. Unfortunately, over 40% of postal ballots were disallowed, and even among the ballot papers that were accepted, 4% of those were rejected due to irregularities in the marking of the ballot paper.

The government has not announced any changes to the postal balloting procedure since the 2023 election, and its reply to a PQ raised by NCMP Hazel Poa suggests that they will not make any major changes to the procedure before the parliamentary elections this year.

While ELD released detailed instructions and an instructional video for postal voters in 2023, the process is a multi-step process, and as evidenced by the high rejection rate of postal ballots, it is not as simple as voting in a polling station in Singapore.

Postal ballot not received in time

Under the law, postal ballots must be received by ELD within 10 days after polling day. Registered overseas voters can download their postal ballots from ELD’s website the day after nomination day and the ballots must be mailed out before polling day. That means that registered overseas voters have only eight (8) days to download their postal ballots, decide who to vote for, and post their ballots. In addition, the ballot must be received by ELD in Singapore within ten (10) days after polling day. Given the vagaries of weather, postal strikes and just general deterioration in postal services around the world, postal voters should post their ballots as early as possible to make sure that their votes are counted.

Unfortunately, just dropping off the ballot at the nearest post box is not enough. Voters must ensure that their return envelopes have a legible postmark, dated at least one day before polling day. This leads to the biggest problem that postal voters face:

Faint, illegible or missing postmarks

ELD provides business return reply envelopes for voters, but many countries do not routinely postmark business reply envelopes, so many voters had their ballots rejected in 2023 because their return envelopes were not postmarked at all. ELD is aware of this issue and does recommend that postal voters apply stamps to the return envelopes so that there will be a postmark to provide evidence of the date of posting.

Voters must also take into account that some postal services do not pick up mail from all post boxes every day. And even if the mail is picked up, it may not be postmarked until it is processed at a sorting facility several days later. This means that even if the return envelope is dropped in a post box on time, it may not be postmarked until after the deadline, resulting in the ballot being disallowed.

As mentioned earlier, overseas voters should post their ballots as early as possible to prevent their ballots from being rejected. Those who want to be extra kiasu may even go to a post office personally to ask for their return envelopes to be manually postmarked by counter staff.

I do not advise using an express mail or courier service to return the postal ballot papers. If the official ELD return envelope is enclosed inside an envelope provided by the courier company, there will not be any postmarks on the official return envelope itself. Those ballots would then be rejected because elections officials are only allowed to look at postmarks on the official return envelope.

Follow the instructions carefully

As mentioned above, ELD gives very detailed instructions on how to print, mark and post postal ballots. Even seemingly minor deviations from the instructions may cause ballots to be rejected. For example,

• Printing the ballot paper and return evelope double-sided on the same sheet of paper – The return envelope must be separated from the ballot paper before counting. Don’t try to save paper. Print single-sided on two sheets of paper, otherwise the vote will be rejected.
• Signing the ballot paper – Any ballot paper which is marked such that the voter can be identified will be rejected. Do not sign the ballot paper. Sign only on the outside of the return envelope.
• No signature or incorrect signature on the return envelope – The return envelope must be signed, and the signature must match the sample provided to ELD during registration.
• Two ballot papers placed inside the same return envelope – These will be not be accepted. Each voter must place his or her ballot paper inside separate return envelopes and sign them individually.

The rules may seem to be nitpicky but they are important because elections officials have to be sure that ballots received are from the correct person, and have not been tampered with. Apart from written instructions, ELD also provides an instructional video to guide the voter through the process, so voters should follow the instructions to make sure their vote is counted.

Registering as an overseas voter

The mechanics of postal balloting are moot if the overseas Singaporean is not registered as an overseas voter. Overseas voters must re-register as an overseas voter every time that the Electoral Registers are revised, and since the Registers were revised today, that means that all overseas Singaporeans must register as overseas voters if they want to vote, even if they were registered previously. This can be done online on ELD’s website up to three days after the writ of election is issued. During registration, overseas voters can register to vote at overseas polling stations, or to vote by post. In either case, if the voter is physically present in Singapore on polling day, he or she can still vote in person at a local polling station.