It took us just under five minutes to cast a special vote on Monday afternoon at the Hunters Hill Fire Station voting station in North Riding, Randburg.
I ran the stopwatch on my phone from the time I entered the voting station premises.
As I walked in, two men in plain clothes were seated near the entrance. I would later learn these were party agents.
Voting station officials said they were allowing five party agents at a time to observe the events.
I was asked to take my seat on one of four open chairs as one person before me went through their paces casting their vote, and as soon as they were done, which did not take long, I was invited to the desk where election staff requested my ID document and searched for my name on the voters’ roll.
The search took a little while before they located it, at this point I alerted them I was timing them for efficiency and they eventually located it.
The staff were warm and professional, and they were completely unbothered by my recording of most of the events or the stop watch I showed them.
They eventually found my name and crossed it off the list, marked my left thumb with indelible ink and proceeded to hand me an envelope. They did not know how long the mark would stay on my fingers.
At this time the official indicated to the officials managing the ballots that I would be handed all three ballots.
Another envelope with my full name and ID number was handed to another official. My ID document was not stamped and I was asked to proceed to collect my three ballots before casting my vote.
The officials folded the three ballots, stamped each of them and handed them to me.
At this point we had a quick chat with the officials.
“Here it's not so busy, it's not like in the township,” remarked one of the officials when I asked how many people had voted so far.
They were warm enough, smiled, but they were not in the mood for a chat.
They pointed me to the voting booth, where I placed my phone face down and marked my vote next to **** - let's just say a political party - on all three ballots. Pens were provided. Remember, it is a crime to capture a picture of your vote.
I placed my ballots inside my envelope, removed the seal and sealed them. At this point, the IEC official presented me with the other envelope with my name and ID number on it, and I inserted my envelope into the bigger envelope and inserted it into the ballot box, which felt pretty full already.
I voted just before 1pm on Monday.
It was a smooth process for me. As I left the voting station I bumped into a few senior citizens who had voted earlier who were chatting among themselves.
The general sentiment from them was that they were voting for a better future for their children and grandchildren.
One of these was Keith Baines of Randburg, who said he was voting for a better future.
“I'm voting for a stable economy, good education - not sub-par education and hopefully, investment and employment,” he said.
Baines said he was a father of two and granddad to three grandchildren and he wanted a good future for his children and grandchildren.
“I'm concerned about the youth that's unemployed and security as well because the crime is quite high in the country.
“I want the best for them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said protests in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape contributed to over 100 voting stations failing to open on Monday.
A further 435 voting stations opened late, but this was resolved by midday.
By 2pm on Monday, over 200,000 people had already cast their votes, while the IEC said it would be making home visits to nearly 625,000 voters between Monday and Tuesday.
Party agents would accompany the 62,000 election officials during home voting.
“The Commission reminds those who qualified for special votes that they will only be visited at the given address once. If the voter is not present at the given address, they will be able to cast their vote at the voting station where they are registered,” said IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela.
The IEC said in instances where voters made two requests - for instance, a special vote and a Section 24A notice to vote outside of normal voting district - the “last (request) will override the first”.
“This is done to protect the integrity of the elections and prevent voters from voting twice,” she said.
Voting hours for special votes are 9am to 5pm, while on election day, voting stations will be open from 7am to 9pm.
Bapela said the special voting process was subject to all the security and integrity protocols of normal voting, including scrutiny by party agents and observers where present.
“Special votes will be reconciled against the voters’ roll and the list of approved special votes.
“Additional checks include the use of the double envelope system which allows us to still preserve the secrecy of the voters’ ballot.
“All special votes collected are stored securely overnight on May 27 and 28, will be transported to voting stations on May 29, to be opened, reconciled and added to the ordinary ballots cast on May 29 before counting begins.
“As May 29 draws closer, the Commission warns South Africans to watch out for misinformation and phishing scams on social media and other digital platforms,” said Bapela.
* Sihle Mlambo is a content manager at IOL
** The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of IOL or Independent Media.
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