The Elections Department (ELD) said it will find out what went wrong on Polling Day on Friday, July 10 that saw the voting process slowed down with long queues forming at some stations.
ELD said on Monday, July 13, that it will conduct a thorough review.
Polling hours were eventually extended by two hours from 8pm to 10pm so that all voters could cast their votes after some polling stations saw long queues formed from the morning.
The ELD apologised yet again for the inconvenience caused to voters, especially to senior citizens.
It acknowledged that measures put in place to protect the health of voters, candidates and officials had "reduced the efficiency voters were used to in previous elections".
ELD response
Head of ELD Koh Siong Ling was responding to a July 13 Straits Times forum letter that described the queue situation this general election.
A 89-year-old woman had taken about an hour to cast her vote at Jing Shan Primary School after reaching the polling station at about 9.30am.
For GE2015, the process took fewer than 10 minutes.
She was with her son, who wrote the forum letter.
Thorough review
In response to the feedback, ELD's Koh said: "We will conduct a thorough review to understand what went wrong and why they happened, especially at some polling stations."
Koh noted that the requirement for voters to wear disposable gloves had added significantly to the time spent at polling stations.
"Therefore, we did away with the need to don disposable gloves since voters would have sanitised their hands a few times," he said.
The ELD had to make adjustments to its processes on Polling Day "without compromising voter safety".
The queue situation did improve subsequently, he added, and 70 per cent of polling stations had queues of less than 20 voters by 2pm.
"But despite our best efforts, a number of polling stations continued to see long queues. We will also study why this is the case, and draw lessons for all polling stations in future," he said.
Background
The 8am to noon slot was reserved for seniors aged 65 years and above to minimise their interaction with younger voters.
Voters also had to put on disposable gloves and sanitise their hands before they were given polling cards at polling stations.
These were part of the precautions taken for the election held in the midst of a Covid-19 outbreak.
Long queues at Palm View Primary School in Sengkang, and the Singapore University of Technology and Design were spotted as a result of the precautionary measures implemented.
The feedback about the difficulty in navigating the layout of certain polling stations has also been acknowledged.
"We will definitely pay special attention to the needs of senior voters and make their voting experience a smooth and comfortable one," he added.