00:00From Privilege to Right, brought to you by NGC.
00:05In the 79 years since the right to vote was given to all adult citizens of Trinidad and Tobago,
00:11one year stands out for a level of voter turnout not seen before, nor experienced since.
00:30The general election of 1961 broke exciting new ground.
00:34It was the first election in which identification cards were used to verify voters
00:39and was the first election in the Commonwealth and outside of the United States to use voting machines.
00:46The switch from the ballot box to voting machines produced an astonishing voter turnout of 88.1%,
00:54suggesting that almost 9 in 10 people had cast their vote.
00:58The transition was done within a tight timeline of one year, with one obstacle after another.
01:04Still, the election of December 4, 1961 managed to survive electrical blackouts,
01:11system failures and irregularities to deliver a highly impressive turnout.
01:16For the supervisor of elections, T.F. Farrell, the fact that the election had taken place
01:22and produced an electoral outcome was a success in itself.
01:26However, for many, the problems and voter statistics were too good to be true.
01:31Distrust fuelled objections and anger, with the opposition parties demanding the return of the ballot box.
01:38The protests rose to a crescendo in 1971, when opposition parties boycotted that year's election,
01:45resulting in a record low voter turnout of 33.17%.
01:51That was the end of the voting machines.
01:54In 1976, the ballot box was brought back, and remains the voting mechanism of Trinidad and Tobago.
02:01However, election authorities believe that time may be coming to consider a more efficient method of voting.
02:08Less paper, more electronic. One of the advantages of that is cost. It brings down the cost of your election.
02:15From privilege to right, brought to you by NGC.
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