This general election will be the first in Jamaica to use new electronic voter identification.

Over 600 polling stations in 13 marginal constituencies in the parishes of Kingston, St. Andrew and St. James will use the Electronic Identification of the Voter and Ballot Issuing System (EIVBIS) on Election Day, September 3.

The technology was approved after being successfully tested by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) in the constituency of South East St. Andrew during the 2003 local government elections.

With some polling stations recording voter turnout of over 100 per cent in the 2002 election - including a staggering 805 per cent at Arthur Wint Basic School in Hanover West - the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) hopes that the new system will reduce bogus voting.

While the machines will not enable you to vote electronically, they will be used to identify you, using your fingerprints. They will match your print on the day with that which you provided when registering to vote. Having identified you, the system will then print a ballot ready for you to cast your vote.

If you are rejected, the presiding officer will revert to asking you certain questions to ascertain whether or not you are the person you claim to be.