Comelec to seek barangay officials' help in voters' education

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) disclosed yesterday the plan to tap the assistance of barangay officials to help educate voters on how to fill up the ballots for the automated elections next year.

Commissioner Armando Velasco said barangay officials would help in the information campaign in the grassroots level of voters.

Various sectors expressed apprehension over the automated poll’s viability and security and the case against computerized elections now pending at the Supreme Court.

“We will be training our people in the field on how to fill up the ballots,” said Velasco during a lecture initiated by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) in Laguna.

Velasco admitted that the commission slowed down the training of Comelec personnel and the preparation for the poll automation because of the case filed at the SC to stop the automated elections.

He, however, assured the people that the poll body is duty bound to implement Republic Act 9369, an act authorizing the Commission on Elections to use an automated election system.

Velasco said the Comelec has chosen Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) system in which a voter will manually fill up by shading with a pencil an oval opposite the names of candidates of their choice and the elective office they are running for.

He explained that the voter will personally feed the ballot to the machine, which he likened to a fax machine and at least 10 voters can cast ballots at any one time.

The voters should not feel intimidated by the new system and should participate in the elections, he added.

Velasco said the ballot can be fed at any orientation with whatever end and after the voting, the machine will automatically count the votes. Then the total number of voters will be electronically transmitted to municipal centers, and then simultaneously transmitted electronically to provincial centers and the Comelec headquarters.

He said the Comelec will need about 80,000 PCOS machines but the poll body intends to purchase 82,000 PCOS to have spare units in case some of the machines malfunction.

He admitted that there are possible glitches with the machines, including the failure to scan votes, inability to print election returns, and failure to transmit and consolidate.

Velasco expressed optimism that elections will push through on May 10, 2010.