In his opinion piece regarding voter registration published in The Royal Gazette on January 25, Walton Brown misconstrues the One Bermuda Alliance’s position regarding voter registration and in doing so, indulges in a little political mischief making.On occasion we have found common ground with Mr Brown’s opinions. However in this instance, he is using the PLP’s only remaining offensive tactic of lamely trying to link the OBA to a sad and bygone era in Bermuda’s political history, by trying to paint the OBA with a tired brush dipped in UBP colours.Here’s why Mr Brown’s analysis is off base:In his piece, he references the dark old days of annual voter registration which deprived “lower income people”, which let’s be frank, is code for “Black People”, of their right to vote. He then mentions that the PLP Government remedied this by abolishing annual registration, a move that all right thinking people applaud, including everyone in the OBA.He then says that the OBA is seeking to change this by requiring citizens to re-register every four years or so, as if the OBA is somehow trying to undo what the PLP so admirably achieved.This is not the case at all! The OBA’s goal in requiring eligible voters to register every four or five years by a defined date, prior to a fixed term election, will move the process of voting in Bermuda forward by building on the experience of the past while not repeating its mistakes. There is a part of the current voter registration process that doesn’t work very well, and our suggestions are aimed at correcting this.(For those who are curious, please refer to the OBA’s FCO submission which can be found on www.oba.bm at the tab marked FCO submission: Paragraphs 55 to 63 deal with voting.)Under the present system, registered voters are required to notify the Parliamentary Registrar when they move constituencies. This notification rarely happens. There is no penalty under the current Parliamentary Election Act if you fail to notify the Registrar about a change of address. As you can well imagine, most people just don’t bother to re-register or notify the Registrar when they move. This means that in constituencies in Bermuda where an election can be won or lost by literally a handful of votes, there is a very real potential that an election can be decided by people voting in constituencies where they no longer live. This benefits neither party.Mr Brown is correct when he states there is a procedure that allows for scrutineers under the current Act, but in actual fact this system doesn’t work. Scrutineers appointed by each political party are then supposed to meet and compare their lists of voters. Under our current system, it’s a very rare meeting indeed when this does happen.Most importantly, under the current Act, the Registrar has no power to move someone’s name from the voter list where they no longer live to the constituency where they live now.Even if an election agent for either of the political parties challenges a voter on Election Day on the basis that he or she is incorrectly registered in a constituency, he or she cannot be prevented from voting. This loophole leaves open the potential for voter fraud, both intentional and unintentional. History has shown that voter lists can be inaccurate in some instances by at least ten percent (or at least 110 voters) and when seats in Bermuda can be won and lost by seven votes, the problem becomes glaringly apparent.It doesn’t end there. Bermuda’s Constitution mandates that a Boundaries Commission be struck every five years to shift constituency electoral boundaries to account for population fluctuations. Of particular note is the fact that the last Boundaries Commission, which met in 2009, was forced to do so without the benefit of the most accurate Census data because the most recent Census data was only released in 2011. In order to make up for this lack of timeliness, reliance was placed on projections and statistical formulae, partly based on data taken from the 2000 Census, (now 11-year-old data) and a Parliamentary Register that was, we in the OBA believe, inaccurate in some areas by at least ten percent. This is the weak part of our voter registration system that the OBA believes should be corrected.The OBA agrees with the PLP that annual re-registration was discriminatory and we have no desire to implement annual re-registration. It disenfranchised many in Bermuda because in order to avoid the inconvenience of re-registering every year, eligible voters gambled on the likelihood of an election, and often lost their opportunity to vote. Annual registration was wrong then, and it would be wrong now. What the OBA proposes is a voter re-registration period for all qualified voters every four or five years, as part of the run-up to a fixed date election. The inconvenience of re-registering is reduced to a bare minimum, and the result is that we can be sure that the Parliamentary Register is accurate whenever an election is held.For the sake of absolute clarity, these are the OBA’s recommendations:1. Fixed term elections so we have a definitive date set for an election every five years.2. Based on that date, a re-registration period for all qualified voters over a defined period of time to ensure a list of voters that is accurate (say between six and 12 months before the fixed election date).3. This list would also be used for by-elections without a need to re-register (but certain changes would be made to the Act to ensure any potential for voter fraud is removed).4. As for absentee balloting, we did not restrict our submission to students. We suggested an Internet or postal balloting system. This would apply to any Bermudian ordinarily resident in Bermuda who was abroad and eligible to vote. The definition of resident would not need to change, and would certainly rule out those who had moved away from Bermuda for good.Michael Fahy is an OBA Senator. Sylvan Richards is the OBA candidate for Constituency Seven.