Dealing with difficult people was the worst. Especially old people who tended to be stubborn.

Common questions:

"My polling station is too far away, why can't I vote here? Same GRC what" - We can only allow you to vote at your designated polling station, I don't know why. No, I can't change the rules just for you. No, the fact that you knew Toh Chin Chye doesn't change anything. I'm sorry you can't walk very far, I still can't do anything. No, Lee Hsien Loong did not personally write you a letter saying you can vote here - that is a mass mailer to everyone saying "please vote for PAP", not "dear Ms Tan, I grant you permission to vote at another polling station", so stop shoving the letter in my face. No, I can't change policy for you, I'm just here to carry out orders. No, shouting about it won't help, except that it gives my supervisor a chance to get the police to come over.

"I didn't bring NRIC or passport, why can't I use my driving license/Passion card/ezlink/etc?" - There are rules governing which forms of ID are allowed, and it has to be one which you have to physically collect. Sorry but there's no point in showing me all your membership cards and credit cards and letters, I can't use any of them. Just because you can use driving license to apply for other things doesn't mean you can use it to vote, I'm sorry. No, I can't change the rules just for you. No, the fact that you knew Toh Chin Chye doesn't change anything. I'm sorry you can't walk very far, I still can't do anything. No, I don't know who you are or how many people you have under you, I don't care and it won't help. No, I can't change policy for you, I'm just here to carry out orders. No, shouting about it won't help, except that it gives my supervisor a chance to get the police to come over.

I believe ELD kept flip flopping on this. Our supervisor was equally frustrated.

• We were trained to offer gloves to all voters after sanitising their hands, and to encourage them to wear one even if they didn't want to.

• Some time in the late morning, we were told to skip the gloves, so we kept it.

• Then a few hours later, we were told to put the gloves on the table, so that people could take them if they wanted, but we did not have to offer it.

• Then later we were told that we should offer voters gloves for those who wanted, and they could take one themselves.

• And then we were later told that if voters wanted gloves, we should take it for them, so they don't touch the whole stack and contaminate everything.

Why? No idea. I heard at the start they wanted people to wear gloves for safety, then later they said no gloves to speed up the process, then they said to offer gloves cos residents/MPs complained. Not sure how true.

The site might look nice, but how it works is that one of the people manning the polling station has to MANUALLY update the number every few minutes. Basically, they estimate the number of people in the queue, and go to a webpage and tap on "<10 voters", "10-20 voters", etcetc. It's so strange, it's like... if i printed out an email and started faxing it to people. ELD should have installed sensors to detect people entering or exiting, but i guess human labour was cheaper.

When it got really busy, the guy updating the website had to deal with other questions and was helping out somewhere else doing double duty.

Also, there are one or two times when a busload of old people would come down, and the queue would jump from 5 people to 40 people. When that happens our first instinct is to help the voters find chairs, direct them accordingly, etc, and not to update the website.

Thoughts from an Election Official

I was manning one of the polling stations yesterday, and I got a lot of questions from friends so I thought you guys would be interested too.

First - none of us volunteered, we were simply assigned. You can get out of it only if you're pregnant, or if you are on MC (whether keng or real). We get paid ~$250-300, which sounds great, but the hours are terrible. To earn this money you need to:

• do a 1-2h online course

• attend a 3h training in person

• for a few people, i think there was a separate training session to learn to operate the machine that scans your NRIC

• help to set up the polling station the day before (4h for most people, but I was asked to go down for another 2.5h in the morning to do inventory check)

• And of course Polling day itself - we were originally told 6am-8.30pm, but some of us had to be there at 4.45am, and of course after the extension we ended up leaving at 10.30pm. I've never worked 17+ hours in a day before.

So even if you ignore the 2h extension, i think the pay works out to about $10/hour. And you deal with some weird shit which i'll talk about later

Yes, from what I can see votes are really secret, there's a serial number on the ballot paper but it's impossible to trace each vote back to a voter without anyone knowing. And yes, each contesting party can send people down to witness the process, PAP always has witnesses there but opposition may not send people down to every site. Even so, there is a specific place they have to sit at, and they cannot see what vote you cast. Nor can they recognise the faces of everyone who went in.

We only found out about the 2h extension at 7+. In fact our supervisor was as confused as us, he told us that he saw the news on CNA website but ELD hasn't given any instructions. We had a lot of questions (especially since 7-8pm was supposed to be for higher-risk patients and we had to wear mask/face shield/gown/gloves) but he said she had no idea either.

Our polling station didn't really have a long queue for most of the day, but i guess some others did? Each polling station was supposed to have 20+ people manning it, but only 6 will stay back and don all the biohazard gear to serve people on MC and SHN. By the time we heard about the extension, we were down to 6 people all wearing the gear, and the rest were told to go out of the site to prevent contamination. Then 10min later, our supervisor was told that all 20+ people should man the station from 7-9pm, and only wear the gear from 9-10pm for the sick/SHN voters. But by that point we already wore all our gear, and ELD did not provide us with any extra gear (there was only just enough for 6 of us), so we couldn't take it off otherwise we wouldn't have any left for later. And our supervisor decided that since one SHN person had voted at 7+, the 6 of us should wear the gear and man the whole station from 7-10pm.

There was a N95 mask, face shield, gown and gloves. Wearing the gear was really uncomfortable, especially for 3 hours. I have no idea how nurses and doctors do it all day. Plus ELD didn't cater any spares, so for 3hours i couldn't drink water or pee because we had nothing to change out of.

Breathing through N95 mask made my face all sweaty, and the face shield trapped all the heat around my face. Plus the face shield kept slipping off, it was really loose. I couldn't really sit properly on a chair because the back of the gown was taped up, and if i leaned back the masking tape would stick to the chair. We couldn't use our phones, and my polling station had less than 10 voters during those 3 hours, so we mostly just sat around and chatted and complained about our miserable lives.

2 hours ago, XianGe said:

 

Now he nids decide wat he wants... Dun tink he can stay for another 2 rounds due to age... most likely sit back let his team do the talking while he groom

TCB needs to think hard! He also has an ego to protect!  Another 5yrs is a long time!

15 minutes ago, meng.huat said:

 

i think he should step back and be the "mentor" of PSP.

like what LTK aims to achieve now.

I also feel this may be the best direction to take! He knows how "Poopy" works, but he left mid 2000.  So things may have change a lot!

His partner "ah yang" knows how "Li" minds ticks! So this is good synergy!

I am not a political analyst. So i just kong jiao wei only hor!

2 hours ago, XianGe said:

Sb61

This is from the sales pitch from u know who!

Quote

Ensuring Safe Voting

To reduce potential crowding, 220 more polling stations will be introduced at the next GE. The total of 1,100 polling stations will also reduce the number of voters per station by 600 – from 3,000 to 2,400.

https://www.gov.sg/article/how-voting-will-be-safely-conducted-if-done-during-covid-19-situation

Quote

Senior citizens above the age of 65 will be given priority to vote between 8 am and 12 pm on Polling Day

Amen!

1 hour ago, XianGe said:

They get the 2 seats.. but duno if ah Bock will take

52 minutes ago, ManOfTheHour said:

He said he wont

If TCB takes the NCMP, he very loose face.  His old colleagues will laugh at him every time he attends parliament.  They will say he enter through backdoor!  TCB knows his ex-colleagues well! 

43 minutes ago, chamfer said:

I can predict that they will redraw the boundaries again 5 years later..... 

Of course!  See "prawn mee"
 

49 minutes ago, XianGe said:

 

Delusion lo... Tats huai wun hab change...

He's not delusional, he a good psychologist.  He's planting the reason to the "lost" attributing to external/unprecedented event not his choose of men and capabilities! So that the feeble minds of commoners will still vote for his fathers legacy!  

He cant con the critical mindset of the younger gen, so he has to keep the old loyalist.  Build founders monument, focus on PG/MG & milk has much as he can till he "retires" soon to be catwalk "president"!   

He has his 10yrs forecast plan!

26 minutes ago, socrates469bc said:

 

 

if oppo is more united and have a better overall strategist-in-charge, most likely will become songbo55 last nite.

 

nb, this time the oppo attack is not focused enough on the overall economic policy performance of loong loong.

 

15 yrs of weak performance from casino economy to mishandling of wuhan virus is the best track record an oppo strategist can exploit on.

18 minutes ago, XianGe said:

 

Bobian cos they oso duno who really genuine wanna work together

From what i observe, it very very tough to form a single oppo due to many egos alpha who wants to be top dog!  Unless, suddenly there's a super Alpha (like Avengers vs Thanos).  

In my opinion, I think most Sinkies, won't be able to grasp complex economic issues/jargon, on top of this P@P controls all the datas!  They know they can say anything also can, u cant proof beyond reasonable doubt! So i believe going for "low hanging fruits" is the best option for the simple minded folks eg covid19, jobloss..... ! 

Ah loong attribute party lost of sits to covid19 woh!!  He says citizens insecure due to pandamic & lost of jobs!

I thought lost is due poor quality & lost of confidence in miniter of XXXX? 

See never listen to voters again, building castles in his head!!! KNN chow ku-niang*!

ps sorry my inner hokkien peng ah beng demons surface again!

I just realized the WP took out 3 office holders!!! 

WOW

In my opinion, WP rookies are the MVP!!!

Does anyone knows if WP is going to have a victory bus/lorry lap of honour boh???  I like to go there to clap for them! 

7 minutes ago, The_King said:

I am in sengkang but somehow not in sengkang

 

It like magix

 

Sengkang wave magic wand become amk

Like that must consult @meng.huat & @chamfer liao! How to counter such magik !  Their Magik is strong! Bersih here didnt happen!

Nevertheless, happy for u for being in SK!

16 minutes ago, ManOfTheHour said:

PAP has two Everton fans. Him and Cotton balls

Xia xuay chan is like a yapping chihuahua!  Condescending b!tch!

26 minutes ago, The_King said:

Heng ah I am in the support age of 21 - 45

 

 

@The_King If u are in SK, AJTC or HG, GOOD JOB!

If not, u must work harder leh!

10 hours ago, Homelander said:

last election he was also there liao

Didnt notice him. What did he offer?  Is it the minority race member thing?

Seng Kang, Aljunied & Hougang kias 

Well Done & Congrates!

Wtf is D David offering in the GRC?  pinky fashion stylist ah?  

5 minutes ago, socrates469bc said:

 

 

if ah heng cannot make it, that means cotton wool and aerobic auntie will be pm and dpm.

 

i want to see the world burns.

 

wahahahhaha

i heard from the grapevine that ah heng is just a sit warmer for.......

Nevertheless, who ever is the next PM, pinky still control from behind as MM!

2 minutes ago, ManOfTheHour said:

Really hate ccs. If he is ever PM, I will go join opposition n run elections

After hearing about the audio tape at SCCC,  He's the only one who brought out my inner demon hokkien ah beng in me!

4 minutes ago, ManOfTheHour said:

Sian i like Dr Ang. Cb general can win Marymount

To all fairness, at least she fought her own battle!  Same for Tin tin.

Unlike xia xuay kia!

What a shame for SDP Mr Chee & Paul T! 

Thank u for fighting hard!

I hate that xia xuay kia!  

"North Korea" site kanna Nuke ah!

HI guys Good morning boys!

How EC doing?

$8M to him is like $0.80!

To his family Sap sap sway leh...! 

1 hour ago, The_King said:

 But money earn gao gao

Unless they own the stall, they are also an employee.  Some of these ZCP stalls have webcam monitored by their boss!

To be fair these guys can cook fairly well and its a tough job too!  I find most of them are nice blokes!

2 minutes ago, The_King said:

If I stay in, I can treat you eat also.

 

Cause it cheap

Those who live there, will know where the good local "lobangs"! and dont pay tourist price!

3 minutes ago, XianGe said:

Ya tat also... 

Most cooks r in Sinkieland oso truelyasians

My area many of the private coffee shop the zhup chai peng cooks are malaysians. Poor guys cant go back for 3 months!

5 hours ago, The_King said:

I don't think this yr I will be able to go JB and take pictures.of food and mall. Jin sad

 

I like JB due to lower cost of living. Who know maybe next time I move to jb stay

When u move to JB, i visit JB i call u like this .

You come out bring me walk walk ok?