Taking Bermuda’s electorate to the polls cost taxpayers $692,698 according to the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Wayne Furbert. That’s compared to the the $759,511 tab for the General Election in 2017.

Speaking in the House of Assembly on Friday (November 13), the Minister said a total of 25,760 people voted in the last General Election on October 1, with another 4,411 people (17%) voting in the advanced polls.

At Senior Citizen Rest Homes, 183 ballots were cast, with 15 votes taken at King Edward VII Hospital and 10 visually impaired voters used the new tactile devices to assist them in the voting process.

“Despite the threat and health risks posed by COVID-19, the Parliamentary Registrar, Ms Tenia Woolridge, and her entire team delivered a safe, seamless and secure electoral process for the electorate,” said Mr Furbert.

“Elections, both the Advanced Polls and the General Poll, were very successfully conducted and enormous credit for this has to be given to the Parliamentary Registrar’s Office.”

Highlights of the Minister’s Full Statement:

A total of twenty-five thousand seven hundred and sixty (25,760) persons voted in the General Election of 2020. Of these, a total of four thousand four hundred and eleven (4,411) persons voted in the advanced polls. Put another way, 17 percent of those who voted did so in the Advanced Polls.

The number of voters in the advanced polls for each constituency are detailed as follows:

  • Constituency 1 – 80
  • Constituency 2 – 112
  • Constituency 3 – 83
  • Constituency 4 – 161
  • Constituency 5 – 200
  • Constituency 6 – 209
  • Constituency 7 – 169
  • Constituency 8 – 143
  • Constituency 9 – 127
  • Constituency 10 – 190
  • Constituency 11 – 164
  • Constituency 12 – 135
  • Constituency 13 – 145
  • Constituency 14 – 148
  • Constituency 15 – 126
  • Constituency 18 – 105
  • Constituency 19 – 125
  • Constituency 20 – 121
  • Constituency 21 – 83
  • Constituency 22 – 94
  • Constituency 23 – 120
  • Constituency 24 – 103
  • Constituency 25 – 176
  • Constituency 27 – 164
  • Constituency 28 – 153
  • Constituency 29 – 145
  • Constituency 30 – 160
  • Constituency 31 – 150
  • Constituency 32 – 148
  • Constituency 33 – 90
  • Constituency 34 – 108
  • Constituency 35 – 108
  • Constituency 36 – 66

Additional detailed data for the General Election 2020, as well as for previous elections, can be found on the website elections.gov.bm.

General elections require an enormous amount of planning, preparation and execution. They also require a small army of workers to ensure a smooth and secure voting process, not only on the actual polling day but also, for advance polls, voting at rest homes and voting at private residences.

There were approximately five hundred and forty [540] workers involved in the General Election of 2020. These are broken down as follows:

  • 70 Returning Officers
  • 202 Presiding Officers
  • 140 Police Officers – who provided security at polling stations and escorts for ballot boxes
  • 40 Works and Engineering staff – for setup and breakdown of polling stations
  • 78 Private Security Firm staff – to deliver and collect ballots and supplies from polling stations; assisting with administering hand sanitizer at polling stations
  • 10 Red Cross volunteers

You would recall that the former Leader of the OBA, Craig Cannonier said that, quote “it is an insult that the Premier would contrive to underestimate our collective intelligence by trying to convince us that he is calling a million dollar election to save the country money.” The Hon Member Cannonier also said as COVID cases reach double figures again, the Premier was asking us to jeopardize our health.

Let me inform this Honorable House that not only did the Government through the Parliamentary Registrar’s Office keep its citizens safe by taking meticulous precautionary measures during the election, it did not spend a million dollars in doing so.

The Government spent approximately sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) less than the One Bermuda Alliance did when they held the election in 2017. It was because of our good stewardship and leadership that the Government achieved a whopping majority of 30 to 6, a massive 20 percent increase and the largest margin of victory in our political history.

The delivery of a well-organised and incident-free election is a testament to the exceptional job that they all do at the Parliamentary Registrar’s Office, and I am grateful for their outstanding service to our Country.