EDITORIAL - No more long lines

Despite glitches and pending electoral protests, the general consensus is that the country’s first fully automated general elections last May turned out to be a success. What proved worse than manual elections, however, was the wait to vote. Filipinos never stood in line for up to four hours just to cast their ballots in manual elections. But because of what was at stake, and fearing that their votes might be stolen, Filipinos waited patiently in line for hours last May to pick a new set of leaders.

That patience could be absent in the elections next month for the barangay and Sangguniang Kaba-taan or youth councils. Many registered voters do not even bother to get to know their barangay and SK candidates. The youth councils are expected to be abolished. Voters will have less patience to wait in line for their turn to pick candidates they don’t even know. While overall voter turnout last May was still high, it was lower than in previous years. This was attributed partly to the unusually long lines that made many people decide to skip voting.

The long wait was traced to confusion over the clustering of precincts, apart from confusion over the new automated system. Next month voters will return to the manual system but the clustering will remain. Last May’s elections should have provided enough lessons for the Commission on Elections and its deputized teachers and other poll personnel to prevent a repeat of the chaos.

With the return to manual elections, the Comelec should also ensure that safeguards against undermining the vote would be in place. Ballots must be protected from tampering and ballot boxes safeguarded from snatching or ballot switching. The Comelec is aware of how vote buyers verify that they are getting their money’s worth, and how vote shaving and padding or dagdag-bawas is conducted.

Disenfranchisement is another way of undermining the voters’ will. This can be done deliberately, by tampering with voters’ lists. Or it can happen because circumstances, including long lines outside polling precincts, discourage the voter from casting his ballot. This is something that the Comelec can and should prevent.