When I first arrived in Micronesia, in Majuro in 1979, a project was in full motion to educate the public in the Marshall Islands about the choices they would soon face at the ballot box: Vote Aet (yes), or Vote Jab (no), on the issue of whether to join the United States in a "Compact of Free Association", or perhaps whether to join other island entities---Palau, Truk, Pohnpei, Kosrae---in a federation. At this point, it doesn't matter which.
The does matter, in my opinion, is how the elections---taking place across all of Micronesia---were being packaged and conducted. What truly matters is whether the voters understood their choices. In my opinion, despite an ongoing blitz of information at the time, and, I think, a high interest among voters, the choices were a masquerade concealing a plethora of aspects---the undiscussed (or under discussed) aspects of the bill of goods that was being sold to them.
The educational blitz was mandated by the United Nations to ensure the voting public in the islands would be awakened to the options, as they achieved self-determination. But it was an impossible conundrum: they could not possibly understand what has been sold them.
The same went on elsewhere. Slogans, posters, signs, speeches, radio blitzes---radio what the only significant medium at the time---could not possibly explain what was to come. It was, in other words, a sham.
We hold that the entire idea of democracy is wonderful; we assume others, from other cultures, will automatically understand. Democracy depends upon the full knowledge of the governed. Thus, the mandate to educate the populace of these islands is critical to success; but success of what? This election was another rotation of the drums of a steamroller, and the project to enlighten the public about the stakes at hand seemed, to my mind, a failed one.
Just like elections in the United States, this election involved unspecified issues, and undisclosed and unpredictable consequences. What is an election anyway? How does this fit in with everything I have ever known? It's fun to vote, but what does it all mean?
============ How it is done
Than again, an election might be constructed and executed in a manner consistent with culturally historical realities.
I was told the story of the assistant major of an island, who was a resident of a certain village, in another Micronesian entity. This assistant mayor was a well respected man around the village, a deacon or assistant pastor of the village church, as well as a government official in the department of education. He made sure to be the first person to vote in an election at some point, I never knew what the election was about. He marked his ballot openly, before the witnesses around the polling place, and openly showed how he had marked the ballot. The voters were given the option to "open vote," or to sit before the assistant major, and mark her ballot before him; or to cast a secret ballot, marked privately in a voting booth.
During those times, the government of the islands made available a fiberglas fishing skiff and outboard motor to each family. I seldom if ever saw one of these fishing project skiffs used for fishing; usually they were used as transportation into town. The fishing project was a failure, but the standard of living, I suppose, was "improved."
As the story of the assistant mayor's influence over the vote happened, I was told that no-one who did not Although most families received fiberglass boats from the fishing project, I have been told that no-one who did not Open Vote ever did. Boats were distributed by the Mayor's office, which also redirected road building funds for construction of a road from the dock to the Mayor's residence; this was the only road on the island at the time. It might be argued that this greedy behavior helped to conserve the island's natural environments.
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