Voters' privacy

I fully agree with Ms F. Farrugia and Ms Joann Mifsud (The Sunday Times, June 20). I had similar experiences, as I am sure many others had too.

It is indeed always an eerie feeling realising that one is being watched from the very first moment on entering the polling station. When I sat down at the table in the voting booth, I immediately knew that it would be very easy for the assistant electoral commissioners to note my vote on such a long ballot paper. So I juggled around with my paper, folding it, turning it and folding it further until I got to the place where I wanted to mark my vote.

I felt like a magician moving his pieces around to confuse his audience while cleverly placing his magical coin so as not to "give the game away".

To add insult to injury, I was stopped from placing my vote in the ballot box when one of the commissioners told me that the stamp should be visible. Yes, maybe this is a prerequisite but then voters might either forget, get distracted or actually not be aware of this regulation.

Would it not make things easier if the commissioners simply remind each voter of this as they hand out the ballot paper? I was not going to be intimidated by this so I diplomatically gave them my back, refolded my ballot paper in such a way that the stamp was visible and, displaying it to one and all, dropped it in the ballot box.

As for the Data Protection Act, some days before the election I received a phone call from a private number to remind us of the actual date and even asking us to call back to confirm that we had voted. We have never taken part in any political activity except for voting but evidently our names are on record. So much for data protection and privacy!