The comedy of the Elections Department mucking up the one job they really have (I created a meme on this - see below) was a source of great fun. How else can I rationalise the authority on the matter going to the Police instead of explaining to the public and the PM sending a proxy to explain the matter which is clearly under his purview.
But the funniest thing really has to be a 'political writer' from the main broadsheet in Singapore describing the election process so erroneously. I had to do a double-take when I first read the paragraph "...after the close of polling, ballots are transferred into different boxes which are sealed and escorted to counting centres, and the empty boxes left behind..." I actually had to check and make sure I hadn't understood the most basic of the voting process wrongly all these years (after all, we are given to believe the Straits Times is the holy grail of journalism).
Ballot boxes are checked, sealed and guarded before the votes are cast and they remain so until they are ready for counting - which happens at counting centres. So the process is --> ballot box sealed at voting centre --> votes are cast into said sealed box --> voting closes --> ballot box transported under Police security to counting centre (source: Elections Department). This essentially is the chain of custody that ensures no tampering and it makes no sense to meddle with the sealed box at the voting centre.
It's amazing that dear Rachel doesn't even understand the election process - it obviously isn't a typo but conceptual fallacy. The editor too - whoever it is (and I couldn't be bothered to check) - obviously doesn't respect himself/herself enough to proofread and check the facts. So this is what the "right thing" is all about huh, Minister Yaacob Ibrahim?
No matter how many awards you bestow on yourself or how much the government paints a lovely picture of you, it is ultimately the quality of your content that determines how good you really are, Straits Times. I'd spend more time upgrading the quality of your reporting instead of hounding ordinary citizens like a shameless bully to pay licensing fees for reproducing articles online which they themselves are featured in.