A little Housekeeping, if you will, this week, Mr. Editor, left over from the Budget Debate. You will recall those interminable briefs that Ministers read but never share except with their own. Well, I actually got one, the old-fashioned way. I was given a copy, although it was after the fact and it didn't come from a Minister. It came from the Parliamentary Registrar who was happy to share with me what his staff put together for the Budget Debate. Good on him. The Parliamentary Registry is classified as a non-Ministry head and for good reason. The officeholder is not subject to the direction and control of any Minister of the Cabinet. It is meant to be that way in theory and in fact, and so he ought to be free to share with Government and the Opposition what he will be up to, and to make this standard operating procedure.

The first thing that caught everyone's eye was a whopping $411,000 increase in budget. We took it as a signal that the Parliamentary Registrar thinks, or has strong reason to suspect, an election within the next 12 months. No, no, that wasn't it, we were told. The increase, rather, was largely to fund two new posts, a comptroller and someone called a "Legalisation Officer", and the further development of an Apostille service (from the French for certification, in this case for important legal documents for international use under the Hague Convention), which of course has zero to do with voter registration. Too bad that.

Find'em and Re-register'em

Voter registration is an area that could use some extra help and improvement, which is not to say that some effort is not being made. It is. The office has been busy on two fronts with:

1) The Boundaries Commission, which is charged with making sure that all 36 constituencies have as equal a number of voters as possible and whose report should be out shortly, possibly as soon as when the House on the Hill resumes in May; and with,

2) The annual voter registration drive which began this month featuring those catchy Mr. Catchem cartoons.

Now Mr. Catchem is a good start. But what we really need is Mr. Find'em and Mr. Re-register'em in their correct constituencies. Please. It makes a mockery of one man, one vote of equal value, when voters remain registered in districts where they no longer reside and where there is the very real temptation to deliberately do so when partisans quickly realise that a vote is of greater value in a marginal seat than it is in one of either party's safer seats. Rocket science is not required to figure out how critical this is in Bermuda where elections have been won (and lost) by as few as eight votes since the introduction of single seats. The 2007 results also showed that ten seats were won by 92 votes or fewer, five by fewer than 50 votes and a sixth by 57 votes.

The Parliamentary Registrar appreciates the problem, and he is trying. For example, we were told that the office will continue to press on with an initiative started last year with TCD which will allow the Registrar to tap into vehicle and licence re-registrations. The office will be able to track those who have moved from one constituency to another and who should, as a consequence, also re-register to vote at their new address. It doesn't always happen. Re-registration just doesn't make the list of priorities when people move house.

Part of the problem is also to be found in the governing legislation, which could use an overhaul. The 1978 Parliamentary Election Act has been amended several times over the years, some of the most significant of which came when we did away with annual registration in 1999 and went instead with a continuous, standing register which eligible voters could join year-round, the way it was incidentally when the Act was first introduced. A little research shows that the original Act featured provisions which contained a clear statutory scheme whereby the Registrar had a duty, on "reasonable cause", to investigate and remove from the register any voter whom the Registrar found to be improperly and/or incorrectly registered. It could only be done on notice, which meant that the voter concerned was first notified and given an opportunity to be heard.

These provisions were dropped in 1979 when annual voter registration was introduced. The Registrar was then required to concentrate instead on registering and re-registering eligible voters annually, and was given the necessary powers to do so, with the assistance of politically-appointed scrutineers for each constituency. But arguably the scope of their work was dramatically reduced by annual voter registration drives, which also meant that no one could be registered, correctly or incorrectly, at any one address for any longer than 12 months.

Missing provisions

Sadly these provisions were not revived in 1999 when we reverted to a continuous, standing register. Pity that. They ought to have been. The Parliamentary Registrar should not only be empowered to keep an accurate register, but charged with the clear statutory duty to investigate and correct voter registration where warranted, with or without the assistance of scrutineers, who are, after all, essentially volunteers and who may or may not be up to the job.

The problem should not be minimised. It is significant in the context of Bermuda elections. I canvass in my constituency fairly regularly, Mr. Editor, and have found from time to time in walkabouts a turnover as high as ten percent in various neighbourhoods: that is, voters who remain registered at an address but who no longer live there, and haven't for some time in some cases, or voters who have moved in but not yet changed their registration. If ten percent, or anything close to it, is the norm for any of the other constituencies, it has tremendous implications for the marginals i.e. the most closely contested constituencies. It could also well undermine the hard work of the Boundaries Commission in trying to equalise numbers and once again underscores that not all votes are of equal value.

Comments? Write jbarritt@ibl.bm

QUOTE FOR THE WEEK: "Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors" - African proverb.