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Bustamante endorsed voter ID system ahead of 1964 elections

Published:Friday | August 29, 2025 | 5:18 AM
The Minister of Home Affairs, Roy McNeill (right) show Lady Campbell a specimen of the registration cards which are returned to the Chief Electoral Office by Returning Officers all over the island. The cards from which master registration cards are made are sent to the central office in the box shown on the table. Just behind the Minister and Lady Bustamante are Mr. Louis Schott, President of the Shoup Corporation (at present on visit to Jamaica for discussions with the Government) and the Prime Minister, Sir Alexander Bustamante. With the, is Mr. Carrol Willson, General Manager of Shoup Operations in Jamaica. Occasion was an official visit which the Prime Minister made to the Chief Electoral Office on August 27, 1964.

During a tour of the Chief Electoral Offices in Kingston, Prime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamante endorsed the Shoup Corporation’s voter registration method, describing it as an effective safeguard against bogus voting. With photographs and fingerprints made part of the process, officials reported that more than 600,000 Jamaicans had already been enumerated ahead of the 1964 general elections.

Published Friday, August 28, 1964 

Bustamante tours Chief Electoral Offices…

-‘Wonderful way of preventing bogus voting’

The Prime Minister made an official tour of the Chief Electoral Offices, Norman Road, yesterday.
At the end of the 50-minute tour, Sir Alexander described the Shoup Corporation method of voters’ registration as "a wonderful way of preventing bogus voting," and said that the only persons who would be against the system were the bogus voters themselves.
Sir Alexander was accompanied on the tour by Lady Bustamante and Mr. C. H. Dinroe, Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office.


Earlier in the day, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Hon. Ray McNeill, and officials of the Corporation held discussions with the Prime Minister concerning the system. The Shoup officials were Mr. Lewis M. Schott, Chairman of the Board; Mr. Irving R. Meyers, Vice-President; and Mr. B. T. Phillips, Vice-President in charge of International Operations.


At the Electoral Offices, Sir Alexander and Lady Bustamante were met by the Minister of Home Affairs and Messrs. Schott, Meyers, Phillips, O. M. Royes, Chief Electoral Officer, R. C. Roxborough, Assistant Chief Electoral Officer; Messrs. John Clerk, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, and C. J. Andrade of the Ministry of Home Affairs; Mr. Carroll Wilson, General Manager of Shoup in Jamaica, and Dennis McFeely, Assistant General Manager.
The Prime Minister and his party then inspected the new administrative buildings of the Electoral Department and toured the Shoup offices, where they observed the taking of photographs and fingerprints and the processing which is done until the identification card is produced.
At the end of the tour, the Prime Minister watched as the trailers left their headquarters to begin the day's work in the electoral division.


Mr. Phillips, the Shoup Vice-President in charge of International Operations, said during the course of the tour that over 600,000 persons had already been enumerated and were in the process of being registered. The Prime Minister and Lady Bustamante were the guests of the Shoup Corporation at the Terra Nova Hotel.


Messrs. Schott and Meyers of Shoup arrived on the island on Wednesday night and will return to New York today.

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