Friday was the last day to pick up voting cards at the substations where several districts were grouped. It would be interesting to know how many or what percentage of eligible voters did so at the various locations.
After all, people weren’t used to this and if one considers, for example, the traffic to get from Cole Bay to the Simpson Bay marketplace during peak hours it may very well have discouraged some. The dump fires and their impact on especially the greater Philipsburg area during the past week weren’t exactly helpful either, forcing a last-minute change from the old Census Office to Raoul Illidge Sports Complex for the related districts.
It’s no big deal, because Postal Services St. Maarten (PSS) will now distribute the cards by mail. The fact that many residents were displaced by Hurricane Irma and would not be at their former street address played a role in the decision to do it this way, along with damage PSS suffered to its infrastructure and delivery capacity.
Persons who do not receive their voting cards by February 18 can get one at the Civil Registry Department in the Government Building. This can also be done on Election Day.
In addition, duplicate cards should be available at the individual polling stations on February 26. This is very important to ensure as high a turnout as possible.
Not making use of one’s democratic right by abstaining, casting a blank or invalid vote solves nothing. Citizens who don’t participate in choosing their representatives without good reason have little cause to complain later.
