YOU didn’t ask Mr Editor, but I thought I would tell you anyhow (call it an Easter bonus), but one of the bigger disappointments to the most recent session on the Hill was the Progressive Labour Party’s failure as Government to make provision for absentee voting. Disappointing not just for me personally, or for the United Bermuda Party, which has been pushing for its introduction, but for the voters of Bermuda. I say this not just because there is talk of a looming general election - although there is that - but because, under a new leader and Premier, they have turned their back on the progress that had been made on this front, ironically also under the PLP.First, a re-cap is in order here. It was back in November 2002 that absentee balloting surfaced in the House on the Hill. The United Bermuda Party thought it was an idea whose time had long since arrived. The PLP Government under then Premier Dame Jennifer Smith thought so too, Mr. Editor.

While they blocked our motion calling for the introduction of absentee voting at parliamentary elections, they promised instead their own review. Eureka! We subsequently got a report of that review the following May, from a committee of civil servants who - surprise, surprise - recommended that legislative provision be made for absentee balloting.

“It will be important for Bermuda to progress this initiative”, concluded the review, “and therefore, it is the recommendation of the Committee that the Bermuda Government consider a thorough review of Postal Voting with a view to its implementation as the first step in an important process to ensure that Bermuda’s population have full access to the vote.”

Okay, so it took six months, but the recommendation was clear, and positive, and who were we in the Opposition to disagree? We didn’t.

The report was endorsed and the expectation was that the PLP Government would get on with it.

They didn’t. We got a General Election instead.

The PLP also got a new leader, in the form of The Man, Alex Scott, who to his credit did not let the idea die.

It popped up next as a promise in that grand plan called the Social Agenda during his regime which was unveiled in the Throne Speech of November 2004.

A draft Bill which made provision for absentee voting by way of the postal ballot was actually tabled the following July just before the House went down and then out for the summer recess.

“Providing for absentee voting is an important initiative”, said then Premier Scott at the time, “and I believe it warrants a period of study and reflection by both the Opposition and the public before we debate the Government’s proposals.”

The Opposition United Bermuda Party did study the Bill and we did share with the Government our comments and our concerns and our recommendations.

Then nothing.

Then came that night at the Wreck in Devonshire when the PLP changed leaders, again - this is catching, isn’t it? - and we got a new Premier.

Still nothing — until this year when we once again brought a motion to the House again calling for the immediate introduction of absentee voting.

You will recall, Mr. Editor, that we were forced to take up the motion in the early morning hours of the last day on which the House met before the current Easter recess, when we and the country learned, for the first time, that the Progressive Labour Party was putting the brakes on this initiative.

The Premier, with the numerical support of his colleagues, changed the motion - and thwarted the thrust of the work which had been done to date.

Our motion was watered down to read: “That this Honourable House take note of the need to continue research into electronic voting, proxy voting, telephone voting and postal voting; and that the Government report back to this Honourable House upon completion of this research.”

Take note indeed, Mr. Editor.

If you ask me (and I knew you would) it looks very much like we won’t see voting by absentee ballot this side of the next election.

It’s not just a pity but a shame, Mr. Editor, that in the 21st century Bermuda has still to make such provision and that voters are reduced to voting in the advance poll a week prior to election day - or not at all, if they happen to be travelling and out of the country on either polling day.

But this is what the Progressive Labour Party Government has decided - for reasons best known to themselves, and which probably have more to do with what is best for the PLP and their prospects at the polls, than it has to do with what is best for Bermuda and democracy.

It raises for consideration, once again, Mr Editor, whether voting and provision for voting at parliamentary elections is another one of those areas of Government which should be as removed as much as possible from plain partisan politics.

Here’s a clue

<$z10>THE Parliamentary Registrar is after all one of those non-Ministry departments, not unlike the Offices of the Auditor General and the Ombudsman, although the latter two have some constitutional protection and the former does not.However, there is a measure of some independence for the Parliamentary Registrar who is appointed by the Governor under the Parliamentary Election Act and who, once appointed, is subject only to the Act in exercising general supervision and control of elections in Bermuda.

Of course, the office Budget is set by the Government : $1.377 million for this year, which included by the way - and here’s a clue Mr. Editor - some $742,000.00 for elections this year, an increase of nearly $700,000.00 over last year, which tells you something too, does it not?

But what the office really needs to further its independence is an Electoral Commission to help govern the office and which reports directly to the Legislature. The Commission ought to be as bi-partisan as possible, built on much the same principle that is enshrined in the Bermuda Constitution Order (and which works) for the Boundaries Commission. That body, which reviews and recommends changes to the electoral boundaries every five or seven years, is constitutionally required to have two independents, and two appointees each for the Government and the Opposition.

It would be left to the Electoral Commission to get on with long overdue ideas and improvements like absentee voting. In fact, I can tell you of a few other areas that require change and the attention of the Commission - like, for example, voter registration.

If it’s broke ...FOR those who have been following closely, the Parliamentary Registrar just recently embarked on a kind of audit of the voting register. We are still operating off the list which was in place in 1998 - when annual registration was scrapped - and it was left to voters to advise of changes when they move from one constituency to another. There is no penalty for not doing so and it’s been my experience that changing voter registration is not high on the average householder’s list of things to do when moving house.The Parliamentary Registrar, Mr. Randy Scott, appreciates this point.

I believe that this was why he sent out forms last November to some 19,105 homes asking each of the householders to advise and confirm his records as to just who was registered at each of those homes.

I am reliably informed that his office has received around 8,000 replies to date and from those replies it has been determined that there are approximately 1900 voters who have been identified as having moved.

At last report, there are a total of 39,458 registered voters so that’s close to five per cent of our voting population who may be registered to vote in districts in which they no longer live. The problem may even be larger than that when you consider that the Parliamentary Registrar had only had 8,000 returns out of 19,105 mail outs.

Bermuda’s Parliamentary Election Act assumes voters live in the constituencies in which they are registered to vote and there are limited opportunities to challenge voters who are incorrectly registered. The Act presumes that the political parties are doing the necessary legwork - through scrutineers as they are called under the Act - to identify those who voters should be subject to challenge.

There is the temptation too, not to re-register in some cases. It doesn’t take a political operative, Mr. Editor, to figure out that votes in marginal constituencies are worth considerably more than those in the so-called safer seats.

Judging from the reported numbers of this recent audit, the system isn’t working like it should - and, Mr. Editor, if it is broke, your Parliamentarians should get on with fixing it.