POND ISLAND–A total of 2,272 voting cards were returned to the Civil Registry Department by Postal Services St. Maarten (PSS) on Monday. Those cards are now available for collection as of today, Tuesday.
The returned cards are leftovers from the 16,258 given to postal workers to deliver to addresses tagged to registered voters.
The cards were dropped off at addresses throughout last week. Cards that could not be dropped off at addresses because houses no longer exist due to Hurricane Irma or voters have moved are among those returned.
The home delivery of cards was the second phase of voting cards dissemination. The first part was two weeks ago when voters could have visited four polling stations to collect their cards. Some 43.1 per cent of the voters who cast a ballot in the 2016 snap election took time out to collect their cards. That number represents 6,301 voters.
All eligible voters who have not received a voting card are urged by the Civil Registry Department to collect their voting cards from the Department on Pond Island from today to Friday, February 23, from 8:30am to 7:00pm.
The Department will open on Saturday, February 24, 9:00am to 1:00pm for pickup of voting cards. Voters must present a valid St. Maarten Identification Card or a valid Dutch passport when collecting a voting card. For more information about the voting cards or pick-up of documents, call the Civil Registry Department, tel. +1-721-542-0652.
Of the some 60,000 residents on the Dutch side, only 22,559 have the right to vote in the upcoming election. Those with the right to vote are age 18 or older, have Dutch nationality and were duly registered as a resident of St. Maarten before the Voters Register closed in early December.
Two years ago, 14,596 of the 22,302 eligible voters used their democratic right to vote for their preferred candidate for Parliament. That number represented 65 per cent of the voting population of 2016.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/73836-2-272-voting-cards-returned-by-postmen
View comments
Hide comments