A woman who has been voting for the past 20 years has claimed that the Registrar General's Office has this year denied her that right.

And the Pembroke East constituent, who did not wish to be named, has called for an investigation into the workings of the department.

With the General Election less than a week away, the distraught woman wrote a Letter to the Editor in a last-ditch attempt to go to the polls.

She claimed that she personally submitted the voter registration form to the office as normal and was shocked to this week learn that the names of those in her family were not listed.

"Each year when I receive the application form I fill it out and return it to the Registrar's Office myself,'' she said. "The most amazing part about this is that I never let anyone mail it or deliver the form for me. I walk up all those stairs and put it in the box myself -- ensuring that it is there.'' The woman explained that she did not copy the form, as she usually did, because she had no access to a copier at the time.

But she insisted that her name was listed on the current voter register when it initially came out. "The lady at the Registrar's Office informed me that I must have looked into the wrong file,'' she added. "But why would the old and new files be together on the same table?'' The veteran voter said she was also concerned because her daughter, who wants to come home from college to vote, was also not listed.

"I went to the Registrar's Office to see what was going on and they also could not find my name or family members on the list,'' she stated, "nor could they find the form that I had taken in myself.'' A staff member in the Registrar General's Office checked the computer system and informed her that the names were "void'', she said.

"I was informed that some application forms got a bit mixed up and they will check to see if it is attached to another form as has happened in a case before,'' she added.

After seeking the help of both the Registrar's Office and her area representatives -- Progressive Labour Party Pembroke East candidates Ottiwell Simmons and Nelson Bascome -- the distraught woman said she was at her wits' end.

"I think that this is a very appalling situation,'' she continued. "I have been registering for years and now all of a sudden I am not on the list.'' Demanding an explanation, the woman also questioned why no one had contacted her, if she was not registered.

But Registrar General Marlene Christopher said the woman was on the delinquent list of non-registered voters and "a letter should have gone out to her'', reminding her to register.

And while she admitted that such claims were not unusual at election time, she refused to concede that an error could have been made in her office.

"In all the time I've been here I've never seen a form go out in the trash,'' Mrs. Christopher said. "The forms are logged everyday as they come in.

"During Parliamentary registration we log them first by assessment numbers.

The computer will determine which assessment numbers have not been logged in, then we send out forms to those who have not been logged.

"And just before the election was called I had my staff going through the forms one by one.'' Mrs. Christopher declined to comment on whether she thought scrapping annual voter registration would help to eliminate such incidents.

Meanwhile, Mr. Simmons -- who has been looking into the matter for his constituent -- could not be reached for comment.

Marlene Christopher