IEC national spokesperson Kate Baphela says it is not compulsory to use scanners during special votes.
This came up after some people noticed the absence of the barcode scanners usually used to check if a registered voter appears on the voters roll.
Baphela says during special votes they prefer doing a manual check of the voters roll. “Your special voting is voting of very few South Africans, so therefore we don’t necessarily need a scanner.”
She says that there were also no scanners at her local voting station.
The use of scanners on voting day
“Because of the low number of voters during special votes, we do not use the machine.”
She did stress that during voting day on Wednesday 8 May, they will have scanners available. “In today’s national election, all the voting stations will be having their scanners.”
In case of the scanners failing, as they have done in the past, Baphela says a backup machine will be available for use.
“In the event that there is a problem with the scanners, officials around the voting stations will make sure that if there is a problem with the scanner, they will bring a backup that is available within seconds.”
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