Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield’s proposal of 156 days to recount the ballots is not such a bad deal as some have suggested.
It’s a truly lunatic idea that is missing only one thing- a roll of toilet paper on top of it! This man Lowenfield is a true jackass.
Now he is right that if 3 teams working ten hours a day and each taking 2 hours to count a ballot box would clean up the 2339 ballot boxes in 156 days.
But what about the truly insane idea of using MORE THAN THREE TEAMS?!!!!
I know Guyana is a poor place and hasn’t got any of the oil money yet but surely the Guyana Election Commission could beg, borrow or steal a little change for that.
If they hired 5 teams the counting could be done in 116 days, 10 teams would take 58 days, 20 teams 29 days, 40 teams no more than 14.5 days, and 100 teams 5.8 days!
Now you say hold on this is getting ridiculous! I say ridiculous is my name, not Lowenfield!
How ridiculous? If GECOM hires 200 teams it would take 2 days! 500 teams would knock it off in 1 day! 1000 teams would whip it off in half day! 2000 teams would lash the counting in 3 hours!
You shake your head and say the old Ram drink some bad rum and gone loco. 2000 teams to do the count in 3 hours?!!! This is not Saudi Arabia with oil billions, this is Guyana with only plans to thief the coming oil money!
I say Guyana has already got 2000 teams to count 2339 ballot boxes in 3 hours. Last month, in the March 2 general election, 2339 teams counted ALL the boxes in three hours. One team per polling station.
I know how it’s done and have done it here in Canada as a poll clerk. When the polls closed the poll team sat down to count with political party reps able to observe but not touch the ballots. One person opened each ballot and say party x and make a mark in his/her tally sheet and pass it down to the next poll clerk who do the same.
And that is it, my brethren and sisters. With an average of about 250 votes cast per box, you knock off a box yes in about 2 hours. You count up the tally sheets and compare to make sure all counters get the same number, account for unused ballots and the returning officer give a statement of poll to all parties. Three hours or less.
Done it before. Can do it again easy. Take only 500 teams this time. Use a big conference centre in Georgetown. One day.
Better still, why count all the ballot boxes? Only region 4 ballots and SOP’s were in contention. Count them!
Low may be the man’s name but it doesn’t have to be his nature.
