It’s elec­tion time in this coun­try and when the Trinidad and To­ba­go Postal Cor­po­ra­tion -TTPOST- this week ex­plained what should be up­dat­ed with the postal code im­ple­men­ta­tion, ques­tions were asked about how this will af­fect vot­ing.

A polling card is usu­al­ly sent out af­ter the reg­is­tra­tion process is com­plet­ed. Reg­is­tra­tion start­ed on Oc­to­ber 24th and will fin­ish on No­vem­ber 3rd. With a change in mail­ing ad­dress, there were con­cerns about if every­one need­ed to up­date their in­for­ma­tion with the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion - EBC.

But the EBC said you don’t have to.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia, the EBC said yes­ter­day it us­es a res­i­den­tial ad­dress data­base when in­struct­ing TTPOST on how to mail out the polling cards. And while the postal code im­ple­men­ta­tion may change your mail­ing ad­dress, TTPOST this week un­der­scored that it does not af­fect your res­i­den­tial ad­dress. Which is why the change in mail­ing ad­dress does not af­fect a deed of own­er­ship to prop­er­ties.

The EBC added that in ad­di­tion to us­ing its own data­base, field of­fi­cers al­so dou­ble check your res­i­den­tial ad­dress.

Mean­while, the TTPOST said while in some cas­es your new mail­ing ad­dress may put you in a new area (e.g. St Joseph to Curepe), it does not change where you usu­al­ly vote.

“I know for sure one per­son came in to­day to up­date their in­for­ma­tion.”

This is what one em­ploy­ee at the EBC’s Barataria of­fice told us yes­ter­day as there seemed to be a slow start to the nine-day vot­er reg­is­tra­tion pe­ri­od.

Peo­ple who are urged to check their in­for­ma­tion are those who have re­cent­ly at­tained the age of 18, peo­ple who have changed their res­i­den­tial ad­dress, peo­ple whose names have changed and those who could not find their name on the pre­lim­i­nary elec­torate list.

“It may pick up com­ing clos­er to Elec­tion Day,” she added.

While in most Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions, there is a to­tal elec­torate of close to one mil­lion, less than half tra­di­tion­al­ly vote. In 2016, 34.34 per cent of the to­tal elec­torate vot­ed, in 2013, 43.6 per cent of the elec­torate vot­ed and in 2010, just be­fore a Gen­er­al Elec­tions, on­ly 39.08 per cent vot­ed.