Singapore legislation
Section 30A
Section 30A
Special polling arrangements to meet voting needs of certain voters
(1)
The Returning Officer may, for the purposes of the poll in an election —
establish all or part of a nursing home as a special polling station; or
authorise all or any of the following special polling arrangements to be provided to service the voting needs of electors who are in-patients or residents of the nursing home during the election period of the election by enabling them to record their votes there in that poll:
by establishing one or more polling places within the nursing home for those in-patients or residents to attend in person to record their votes;
by deploying one or more mobile polling teams to visit those in-patients or residents to take the votes of those in-patients or residents, as the case may be.
(2)
In determining whether to establish a special polling station under subsection (1) in a nursing home for the purposes of the poll in an election, the Returning Officer must have regard to whether there is or is likely to be, during the election period of the election, a significant number of electors who are in-patients or residents of the nursing home and who —
are unable or likely to be unable to travel to the ordinary polling stations allotted to them respectively under section 18(1) except with great difficulty; but(b)are able to vote at the nursing home by marking a ballot paper personally or in the manner allowed under section 25(7).
(3)
In addition, the Returning Officer must have regard to the following factors in determining whether to authorise special polling arrangements by way of mobile polling to be made available under subsection (1)(b)(ii):
the number of electors who are in-patients or residents of the nursing home with any physical condition, serious illness or infirmity that will preclude the electors’ attendance in person at a polling place in the special polling station;
the practicality of establishing and deploying mobile polling teams to take the votes of those electors, having regard to their numbers and the resources required for doing so;
the existence of any peculiar circumstances within the nursing home applying to those electors and their voting needs.
(4)
Subject to subsection (5) and regulations made under section 30C, a poll and voting at a special polling station by electors who are in-patients or residents of a nursing home where the special polling station is established must be conducted, as far as practicable, in the same manner as that in which a poll and voting at an ordinary polling station on polling day is conducted.
(5)
Despite sections 62, 63 and 64, the person in charge of a nursing home where a special polling station is established under subsection (1) may lawfully inform a presiding officer who is a member of a mobile polling team deployed at that special polling station that a visit to an in-patient or a resident of the nursing home is forbidden on medical grounds, and the mobile polling team must then not visit the in-patient or resident to take the in-patient’s or resident’s vote.