Hughes continues to advocate for change to the counting process so election results are known earlier

Supervisor of Elections Ian Hughes says the country has outgrown
the old format of counting ballots at a central location after an
election. Accordingly, he will be pushing for a change in the
legislation.
 
Based on the current law, ballots from the respective polling
districts are transported to a central location, where the returning
officer is mandated to count the votes in all the boxes within a
particular constituency.
 
But in an interview last month, Hughes said he would prefer to see
ballots counted at the respective polling stations – where persons
actually cast their vote, instead.

Therefore, he will be advocating for the Parliament to make the
legislative adjustments, since this would see election results
returned at a much earlier time than the current norm.
 
Hughes admits that the current set-up is tedious, since, in some
cases, one person has to count 5,000 ballots – after having
performed earlier duties while the voting was taking place.

The Supervisor says that his proposal can be accomplished. He
recalls that a similar action was taken in 2019, when there was a
referendum to replace the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of
Justice (CCJ).
In that instance, he says, the results were ready by 8 p.m.
 
He notes, however, that, with a new system, there would have to be
an audit the day after the elections.
 

Further, Hughes says that with any new system or process, re-
training and re-tooling will be of the utmost importance. Therefore,
those involved in the electoral process would be required to
undergo training if the counting process changes.