Jamaica: Names of over 260,000 deceased persons to be removed from voters list

The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) has embarked on a ‘Dead Elector Removal Exercise’, to remove the names of persons on the voters’ list who have died since 1998.

Director of Elections, Glasspole Brown, says the exercise aims to delete the names of in excess of 260,000 deceased electors.

Brown said the engagement comes against the background of concerns raised over a period of time regarding the number of deceased electors’ names, which are removed from the list each year.

He disclosed that the EOJ has deleted an average of under 5,000 names annually, since continuous registration commenced in 1997.

“Hence we anticipated that the list would have accumulated a [significant] number of deceased electors over the 20-year period. [So] there is now a need to refresh the list.” the Director of Elections added.

The Exercise is twofold, with the first phase, which runs until April 30, 2019, entailing identifying the names to be removed.

The second phase involves removing those electors’ names from the list, after they have been confirmed as deceased by the EOJ.

The verification process will be undertaken four ways: verifiers visiting the homes of electors 40 years and older to confirm their status on the list; political representatives supplying the EOJ with information on persons in their constituencies who have passed away; public- and private-sector stakeholders sharing their records on persons who have died; and the general public providing information on their families, friends or acquaintances who are deceased.

The EOJ is dispatching approximately 795 verifiers to the 63 constituencies islandwide to carry out the three-month exercise, now under way.

Brown indicated that for easy identification, each verifier will have an EOJ identification card and will be wearing a branded T-shirt bearing the agency’s crest on the front and the words ‘EOJ Verifier’ on the back.

To verify the death of electors, the EOJ is requesting the submission of any one of several identification documents for the deceased. These include: a Passport, Driver’s License or Voter Identification Card along with supporting documents such as death certificates, burial orders and funeral programmes.

“We are asking the public and stakeholders to, as best as possible, provide us with an identification document for the person who has died and any document that will help us in the confirmation process as we move to confirm the death of these individuals,” Brown urged.