Registrations for the electoral roll are expected to pass the 24,000 mark, making it the highest number of voters to date, Supervisor of Elections Wesley Howell has confirmed.
Howell spoke with the Cayman Compass before a series of voter registration drives to assist electors with getting registered. The deadline to register to vote in the 30 April general election is 15 Jan.
“As of Monday, 16 Dec., we had received 488 new voter forms and 260 change of information forms. Note the 1 April 2025 list is the one that will be used for the 30 April 2025 general election, which is expected to have more than 24,000 voters,” he said.
Howell said the Register of Electors that will be published on 1 Jan. has 23,829 voters, about 300 more than the 1 Oct list. The list that was used for the 2021 general election had 23,609 voters.
Active registrations
Howell said there has been an “uptick” in registrations since the election was announced last month.
“It’s very active. We can tell that candidates, potential candidates — at this point they are not nominated yet — are going door to door,” he said.
The Ministry of Youth, he said, has been conducting a youth-focused voter registration drive, “recognising that that’s the least represented in terms of percentage of registered voters, the Caymanian youth … the sort of 18 to 23 [age group]”.
Cayman’s average voting age is 53.
Once registration closes on 15 Jan., he said, there is a detailed process that takes place before the 1 April list is finalised for use in the general election and the planned referendum.
Deputy Premier and Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan has said that the legislation for the referendum on cruise berthing will be heading to the House in January.
Voting list process
Howell said once the deadline closes, a revised list is published for approval.
Once published, there is a period for individuals to review the list and file any objections, he said.
“ The objections have to be made known and then the objections are heard by the revising officer who’s the chief magistrate. So, each of those deadlines push through all the way until the last week of March and it concludes that process. Then the list comes into force on 1 April,” Howell explained.
While the elections supervisor said he pleased to see active registrations, he acknowledged that there are some eligible voters who shy away from being added to the electoral roll for various reasons.
One of those reasons is avoiding being added to the juror list.
“Being added to the jury pool, along with apathy and other reasons, has been sighted by a minority of people as their reason for choosing not to register to vote,” Howell said.
However, the elections supervisor said, while being added to the jury pool and being called to serve as a juror is possible, “Registering to vote empowers Caymanians to shape the future of our islands. Your voice matters in every election, so if you are eligible, please register to vote.”
Postal votes
Howell said with Nomination Day on 3 March, the turnaround time for the postal ballots will be short. By law, the Elections Office will have to issue postal ballots by 10 March.
“Given the unfortunate timing of the nomination period and postal ballot period predating the 1 April list coming out, any new voters that are on the list, any persons changing electoral districts won’t be able to get their postal ballot until after 1 April because they won’t actually become official until that date,” he said.
Howell assured that the Elections Office will know the voters who have applied for postal ballots because the deadline would have “long passed, but the actual process of bringing them into force happens on 1 April”.
He said ballots will be printed the weekend of 7-9 March and they will then be secured.
The Elections Office, he said, has been in a state of readiness since the first referendum motion passed the Parliament.
“We sort of reassembled the teams when the referendum motion on cruise passed earlier this year,” he said, adding that it is a massive training exercise to ensure that everybody knows exactly what they’re doing on Election Day and “can do their work confidently and very accurately”.
Howell said training will be conducted in the John Gray High School gymnasium, allowing for concurrent sessions with the officers that will be conducting the elections.
As for the Sister Islands, he said, training officers will head to Cayman Brac and conduct sessions there because voters will be casting ballots in person.
“Little Cayman is a little special. We do mobile voting for Little Cayman, and we’ll travel there by plane and vote and take the ballot box back to Cayman Brac,” he said.
He said training days have been set all the way through April for the nearly 300 polling staff.
“We’re in full swing. Our staff are being trained; training started a few weeks ago. Preparations are underway for all the materials that we will need. We’re running through ballot designs and those sorts of things in preparation for next year,” he added.
Howell encouraged eligible residents to register sooner rather than later and avoid the last-minute rush.
He said the Elections Office will be announcing extended operating hours closer to the deadline.
The Elections Office is also hosting a series of voter registration drives across multiple locations in the lead-up to the deadline on 15 Jan.
Elections Office staff will be on-site to assist with voter registration, answer questions and provide information about the electoral process, an Elections Office statement said.
The next voter registration drive event will be 28 Dec. from 10am-1pm at Hurley’s.
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