CLARK FREEPORT – Shading spaces for 13 or more for senators on a ballot will invalidate all votes one cast for senators, while shading less than 50 percent of the oval space provided for a chosen candidate will not be counted as a vote at all. Yet, no voter will be entitled to a second ballot for a chance to correct mistakes.
These are among the concerns that have yet to be underscored in an information campaign by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prepare voters nationwide for the country’s first national automated elections next year, election lawyer Luie Guia stressed here during a seminar on the automated elections attended by journalists sponsored by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) over the weekend.
This, even as Guia lamented the delays in the Comelec’s issuance of General Instructions (GI) for the members of the Board of Election Inspectors nationwide, as well as another GI on canvassing.
“We have only about five months remaining before the May elections next year and many are waiting for the GI which must reach about 80,000 BEI’s all over the country,” said Guia who is a trustee and former president and director of the Democracy and Electoral Reforms Desk of the Lawyers’ League for Liberty (Libertas).
Guia expressed concern over reports that only about 38 percent “level of awareness” of the country’s voting population about the automated polls, saying this reflected the need for the government to intensify its information campaign.
He noted that the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, which still have to be delivered to precincts all over the country, will not count errors in shading oval spaces beside the names of candidates from president of the Philippines down to the municipal councilors.
Guia said that voters will be provided with non-erasable pen with which to shade the spaces. “For example, if the voter shades 13 spaces to indicate his votes for senatorial candidates, all his votes for senator will not count because he is allowed to vote for a maximum of 12 senators,” he said.
He noted that some voters might be carried out with their shading and votes in excess of 12 as the names of all senatorial candidates would already be printed in their ballots. The same situation could prevail in casting votes for members of the provincial, city or municipal councils, he added.
He also said that the PCOS machine has been calibrated in such a way that shading the oval space for a chosen candidate will not be counted at all if the shade covers less than 50 percent of the space. “Perhaps the machine will tolerate shades beyond the oval limits, but not shortage of shade,” he also said.
Guia warned voters who would merely put a check or an X mark on the oval space to indicate their voted candidates, as these would not be counted by the machines.
Guia expressed confidence that the PCOS machines, to be provided by Smartmatic which won the Comelec bidding for the automated polls project, will indeed work.
But he cited lack of guidelines on what alternatives BEI’s can resort to in case the machines, which are provided with only one standby battery that can purportedly last 16 hours, fail.
“If the PCOS machines do not accept the ballots being fed into it by the voter, the BEI’s can still resort to manual counting votes reflected on the paper ballots. But it is not clear whether the Comelec will provide the BEI’s all over the country with paraphernalia for manual counting as an alternative of last resort,” he said.
Guia noted that the PCOS machines would count the votes at the precinct level and are supposed to electronically transmit its count to Comelec provincial and national centers. “If the machines fail in this, we should be prepared to again physically transmit the election returns to town or city headquarters,” he said.
He also stressed the need to campaign for voters to go to their precincts early, and avoid the habit of casting their votes in the last minute.
Guia said that the Comelec decided to cluster more precincts to maximize the use of each PCOS machine which can process as much as 1,000 ballots, a measure that will also increase the number of automated machines on standby for areas where some of the machines might fail. “So instead of the initial 80,000 precincts, there will only be about 73,000,” he noted.
He said that one clustered precinct would pool as many as seven precincts using only one PCOS machine, so that as much as 1,000 voters would be voting in one precinct instead of the usual 200. The voting period, however, has been extended for the next elections from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Guia also noted that the Comelec also still has to determine where to locate the PCOS machines that will remain on standby for emergencies and how they could be immediately transported where they would be needed.
These are among the concerns that have yet to be underscored in an information campaign by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prepare voters nationwide for the country’s first national automated elections next year, election lawyer Luie Guia stressed here during a seminar on the automated elections attended by journalists sponsored by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) over the weekend.
This, even as Guia lamented the delays in the Comelec’s issuance of General Instructions (GI) for the members of the Board of Election Inspectors nationwide, as well as another GI on canvassing.
“We have only about five months remaining before the May elections next year and many are waiting for the GI which must reach about 80,000 BEI’s all over the country,” said Guia who is a trustee and former president and director of the Democracy and Electoral Reforms Desk of the Lawyers’ League for Liberty (Libertas).
Guia expressed concern over reports that only about 38 percent “level of awareness” of the country’s voting population about the automated polls, saying this reflected the need for the government to intensify its information campaign.
He noted that the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, which still have to be delivered to precincts all over the country, will not count errors in shading oval spaces beside the names of candidates from president of the Philippines down to the municipal councilors.
Guia said that voters will be provided with non-erasable pen with which to shade the spaces. “For example, if the voter shades 13 spaces to indicate his votes for senatorial candidates, all his votes for senator will not count because he is allowed to vote for a maximum of 12 senators,” he said.
He noted that some voters might be carried out with their shading and votes in excess of 12 as the names of all senatorial candidates would already be printed in their ballots. The same situation could prevail in casting votes for members of the provincial, city or municipal councils, he added.
He also said that the PCOS machine has been calibrated in such a way that shading the oval space for a chosen candidate will not be counted at all if the shade covers less than 50 percent of the space. “Perhaps the machine will tolerate shades beyond the oval limits, but not shortage of shade,” he also said.
Guia warned voters who would merely put a check or an X mark on the oval space to indicate their voted candidates, as these would not be counted by the machines.
Guia expressed confidence that the PCOS machines, to be provided by Smartmatic which won the Comelec bidding for the automated polls project, will indeed work.
But he cited lack of guidelines on what alternatives BEI’s can resort to in case the machines, which are provided with only one standby battery that can purportedly last 16 hours, fail.
“If the PCOS machines do not accept the ballots being fed into it by the voter, the BEI’s can still resort to manual counting votes reflected on the paper ballots. But it is not clear whether the Comelec will provide the BEI’s all over the country with paraphernalia for manual counting as an alternative of last resort,” he said.
Guia noted that the PCOS machines would count the votes at the precinct level and are supposed to electronically transmit its count to Comelec provincial and national centers. “If the machines fail in this, we should be prepared to again physically transmit the election returns to town or city headquarters,” he said.
He also stressed the need to campaign for voters to go to their precincts early, and avoid the habit of casting their votes in the last minute.
Guia said that the Comelec decided to cluster more precincts to maximize the use of each PCOS machine which can process as much as 1,000 ballots, a measure that will also increase the number of automated machines on standby for areas where some of the machines might fail. “So instead of the initial 80,000 precincts, there will only be about 73,000,” he noted.
He said that one clustered precinct would pool as many as seven precincts using only one PCOS machine, so that as much as 1,000 voters would be voting in one precinct instead of the usual 200. The voting period, however, has been extended for the next elections from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Guia also noted that the Comelec also still has to determine where to locate the PCOS machines that will remain on standby for emergencies and how they could be immediately transported where they would be needed.
