STOMPer Horizon was unhappy to see lights left on in a voting centre at Marine Drive, even at 1.30am.
Said the STOMPer (Aug 28):
"The officers conducting the poll left the voting centre, forgetting to switch off the lights and fans.
"I walked around the void deck trying to find the switches but was unfortunately unable to find them.
"Otherwise I would have just flicked the switches off in an act that would cost me just two seconds of my life.
"These pictures were taken at Block 61 Marine Drive at 0130 hours on 28 Aug 2011.
"It is one of the voting centres for the 2011 Presidential Election in Singapore.
"Our planet is dying. We are today still extremely unjust to her for the above errant behaviour.
"To save the Earth for our future generations, can the Elections Department include this simple task to the Conducting Officers of the voting centres in future elections?"
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This time round, it's "merely" wasted electricity & pointless environmental pollution -- both light pollution (which causes glare & wildlife disruption), as well as the air pollution at the coal-powered station which generated the electricity that was being wasted at the empty polling station.
Next time, such temporarily-installed lights could have short-circuited, & possibly caused a fire at the void-deck. The family sleeping at the 2nd-floor unit could have died from smoke asphyxiation &/or the flames.
If the 2nd scenario had happened instead, are you able to sleep soundly at night ? (Or perhaps the answer is a nonchalant yes ... & this being S'pore, nothing is very surprising anymore.)
As far as I know, polling officials are "arrowed". However, I won't be too surprised if some might be desperate to volunteer, although if they aren't nominated.
The counting agents (ie. those who observe the counting process on behalf of the candidates, but aren't allowed to intervene) are volunteers. These volunteers can be from the public or private sector, depending on the candidate's background & preferences.
On a brighter note, I guess some POs, APOs, ROs, AROs, etc. have more commonsense. Otherwise, more polling stations could’ve been stomped. Also, the nearby void-deck involved in the same election wasn't blazing throughout the night.
If the entire team is escorting the ballot boxes to the counting centre -- surely upon departure, during the van ride, or during the 7-8 interim hours at the counting centre, at least 1 polling official might possess 1 minute’s worth of reason to call/SMS the relevant coordinator to prep down the polling station ?
Well, nevermind. I’ve yet to figure out why the last group of people never find it reasonable to switch off the office lights &/or aircons at the end of the day. Just try this in the private sector, & see what happens the next working morning.
=> Hmm, I guess you might not have attended election officials training before.
"there have already been town council and HDB reps assigned to all such void deck polling centres to take charges of these issues"
=> So these "in-charge" public servants are afraid of ghosts ?
"There ain;t a light switch like at home where you can jus flick it on or off as you leave"
=> This void-deck case is not surprising 'cos based on personal encounters, public servants DO frequently leave the lights & aircons on overnight (& sometimes even over the non-working weekend), although though the switches are located beside the office exit.