Polling teams will go door-to-door on July 10 to deliver ballot papers to all voters on stay-home notice (SHN) at hotels, the Elections Department (ELD) said yesterday.
After opening the room door, the voter in the designated facility has to stand 1m away, lower his mask momentarily and show his identity card or passport to the polling team.
Once the voter's identity has been checked against the SHN voter register, the team will read out the voter's electoral division, polling district and voter serial number before handing over the ballot paper.
After the ballot paper is marked in private, the voter will place it into the ballot box. If the room is shared by more than one voter, the team will repeat the process for each voter.
Marina Bay Sands and JW Marriott Singapore South Beach have been designated as special polling stations for voters serving their SHN in those hotels under the Parliamentary Elections (Covid-19 Special Arrangements) Act.
There will be four stations at Marina Bay Sands and one at JW Marriott.
The Act allows these voters to vote outside their electoral divisions.
The ELD said candidates and polling agents for the electoral division that the voter is in may accompany the team to observe the polling proceedings.
At the close of polls, the ballot boxes will be sealed and delivered on the official buses, under police escort, to the centralised counting centre for counting. The counting procedure there will be similar to how votes cast by overseas electors are counted.
Once the ballot boxes from all special polling stations have arrived, the assistant returning officer will invite the candidates and counting agents present to inspect them.
The ballot papers will be mixed first before being sorted by electoral divisions. The papers of each division will then be counted at a specific counting table.
After that, the assistant returning officer will announce the result to the candidates and counting agents present. The result will be transmitted to the principal counting place of that electoral division for tallying.
Separately, Singaporeans overseas who have registered as voters can vote at the polling stations in 10 cities: Beijing, Canberra, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Tokyo and Washington.
Voting will take place subject to the approval of the overseas authorities and the prevailing Covid-19 situation in those cities, the ELD said.
These polling stations will implement similar safety measures as those in Singapore, including temperature screening and requiring all voters to wear masks. They will also have to sanitise their hands and put on plastic gloves before collecting their ballot paper.
These polling stations will also implement a special voting hour between 7pm and 8pm on Polling Day for any voter with a fever of 37.5 deg C and above, with overseas election officials in full personal protective equipment.
Cleaning and disinfecting of the polling equipment, including the booths and self-inking pens, will be done after every voter's use.
Calvin Yang
