My Voting Experience – the ICJ Referendum, 2019

By Aaron Humes: As you might guess from the title, this story will be a little more personal than most I’ve written for Breaking Belize News or any other media house I’ve worked for.

Not dedicated especially to working today – the other media do what they do on days like this exceptionally well – I headed out to vote around 2 p.m. this afternoon.

This is the fourth division I have voted in for any election of any kind – when I first became a voter I was in Port Loyola division, area 22 which is the Fabers’ Road area. Part of that was subdivided into Collet around 2008, what is now 20A, I believe. My family eventually moved to George Street in Mesopotamia, which is area 15 (Salvation Army); then to Alexandria Street, the east side. We never voted while we lived there but I think it would have still been Mesopotamia instead of Albert, area 16. We currently live on South Street, which is the northern boundary of polling area 11, Anglican Cathedral College.

I went in, had my name called and presented my (expired) voters’ ID, whereupon I was informed that the election officers had my new voters’ ID in a room further down from the voting room. In and out in two minutes or less, another minute or so to pick up the new ID, and I was out of there. In one of life’s coincidences, the lady in front of me also has Humes as a surname, but I’m pretty sure we’re not related.

Perhaps one little discrepancy though. I don’t recall my height being measured when I re-registered last August, but somehow I’ve managed to grow two inches taller in the nine years since I got my (replacement) voters’ ID in 2009. I was six foot then, six foot two now, at least according to the Elections and Boundaries Department. With any luck, in another two decades I will be as tall as Michael Jordan (six-foot-six), but I can’t do anything about it since he will probably be dead and I’ll be as old as he is now. No word on when I’ll pass LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain et al.

But that’s not even as bad as my mom, who registered under her married name only to find out at the registration center that she is under her maiden name! My parents, as of next month, will have been married as long as I’ve been alive, give or take six months. No plans to divorce, I think.

My next-to-youngest sister reported hearing bribes of $10 (ten dollars) to vote in the Pickstock area. Not even multiple bills. I hope that doesn’t tip the scales. If there was any bribery going on in the Alberts, I didn’t see it.

All told, whatever the result is this evening (and as of this writing you have less than an hour to change it), I welcome this display of democracy, and hope we move forward in unity and dignity.

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