With a general election anticipated later this year, the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) is urging electors to collect their renewed voter identification (ID) cards.

The call comes as the EOJ intensifies efforts to ensure smoother voting experiences and improved efficiency at polling stations on Election Day.

“At this time, we have approximately 120,000 voter ID cards in our offices waiting to be collected by electors. We did a renewal exercise in 2019 and we had quite a few persons who renewed their voter ID cards, but did not come to collect them,” said Manager, Public Relations and Communications at the EOJ, Daynia Harper, during a recent interview with JIS News.

She further stated that many of the uncollected cards belong to individuals who registered to vote as far back as 2016, receiving the ID card that would have expired in 2019, but was later extended until 2021. These cards were automatically renewed by the EOJ, but thousands of electors have yet to retrieve them.

“We’re impressing upon registered electors to visit their EOJ constituency office and collect their voter ID cards,” said Harper. “For those persons who registered in 2016 and asked for and got the old ID card, meaning they did not get the one that expired in 2031, we are asking those persons to contact their EOJ constituency office to confirm that their ID card was automatically renewed and to go ahead and collect the ID card.”

Harper also advised persons whose ID cards were not automatically renewed, to move forward with the renewal process, noting that the voter ID card is a crucial document that confirms a person’s eligibility to vote.

The voter ID cards were updated to meet international standards, with new design and security features added. The new cards were first issued in October 2021.

Persons may visit their EOJ Constituency offices Mondays through Thursdays, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm and on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to pick up their voter ID cards.