IEBC puts measures in place to ease voting

To avoid long queues at the polling stations on Tuesday, the electoral agency has developed several solutions for the General Election.

Unlike in the past, when the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) used surnames to organise the queues, this time round, they will be on a first-name basis.

This, the agency believes, will ensure ease in accessing the polling stations and casting the ballot.

POLLING STATIONS
To avoid bottlenecks during entry, there will be multiple entrances to the polling stations that will be clearly marked.

The IEBC has also capped, as per the law, the number of people at a polling station at 700, further reducing the time one will queue to vote.

At the polling station, the IEBC will display a sample of the ballot paper for voters to familiarise themselves with the voting procedure before they are actually issued with the ballot papers.

BALLOT PAPERS
The ballot papers are in different colours.

That of the presidential election is white, member of Parliament (green), member of the county assembly (beige), senator (yellow), woman representative (purple) and blue for governor.

The votes will be counted and tallied and the results transmitted in that order.

ID CARD
In the event that a voter realises that they have marked a ballot paper wrongly, they can get up to two more to correct their mistakes.

“You get only a maximum of two,” IEBC communications manager Andrew Limo said, adding with a light touch: “You cannot be a professional ballot ruiner.”

These measures, the IEBC believes, will further reduce the number of spoiled votes once the ballots are cast.

To vote, you need only show your national identity card or passport — whichever you used to register as a voter.