ELD apologises after almost 10,000 voters in Tanjong Pagar GRC receive 2 poll cards due to printer's error
A machine used to count voting slips seen at the Elections Department Singapore training centre in 2019.
SINGAPORE — The Elections Department Singapore (ELD) has apologised after almost 10,000 voters in Tanjong Pagar received two poll cards, most of them with different serial numbers. This was due to an error by a printing company.
In a statement on Thursday (Aug 24), ELD said that the printer, Toppan, had erroneously mailed out test prints of poll cards together with the correct poll cards.
ELD said that it had "received feedback from some voters of Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) that they received two poll cards with different voter’s serial numbers".
The agency added that the error had affected a total of 4,803 households — comprising 9,822 voters — from Tanjong Pagar GRC.
Of the 9,822 voters, 9,354 received two poll cards with differing voter’s serial numbers. The remaining 486 voters received two poll cards with identical information.
Toppan is a Japanese global printing company headquartered in Tokyo. The company has multiple offices in Singapore, providing services such as information technology solutions and producing printed documents for official government publication.
ELD said: “The affected voters are assigned to vote at St Margaret's School, Tanglin Community Centre, Farrer Park Primary School and Delta Sports Hall polling stations within Tanjong Pagar GRC.”
The agency is in the process of reaching out to affected voters to inform them of their correct serial numbers, adding that voters can get the correct details from their ePoll card on the Singpass application, the national authentication system for e-services. The details there are accurate and unaffected by the printing error.
"We apologise for the confusion caused to affected voters," ELD added.
Processes are in place to ensure that voters with two poll cards will only be able to vote once at the correct polling station, since voters will also need to produce their national identity card, which will be verified against the polling station register at the polling station, it said.
Those affected may dispose of the erroneous or duplicate poll card.
Affected voters may also call 1800-CALL-ELD (1800-225-5353) for assistance.
Singaporeans are set to head to the polls on Sept 1 to vote for the country's ninth president.
The presidential candidates are Mr Ng Kok Song, former chief investment officer of sovereign wealth fund GIC, former Cabinet minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Mr Tan Kin Lian, former chief executive officer of NTUC Income insurance cooperative.
