Comelec to put tracking device on ballots

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be installing a tracking device on the packets that will be containing the ballots in next year's automated elections. Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal on Wednesday said this is to ensure that the ballots would reach their rightful destinations. “We’re finalizing the tracking system for the delivery…to be sure that the ballots intended for [a] particular precinct will be delivered to the intended precinct," Larrazabal said in a press conference.

A bar code similar to those used by couriers and local and international forwarders would be placed on the packet containing the ballots for tracking purposes, according to Larrazabal. He stressed the need to determine the location of the ballots while they are being delivered from the National Printing Office (NPO) to the estimated 72,000 precincts all over the country. Larrazabal said the total number of precincts is still subject to change depending on the number of voters approved. As of July 2009, the Comelec said that there are a total of 45,638,243 eligible voters for the 2010 elections. Earlier, the Comelec said that they will be using colored ballots in 2010. Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the ballot would be divided into sections that are delineated by a colored border. The sections will be colored blue for president, vice president, congressmen, provincial governor, and councilors; and green for senators, party-list groups, provincial board members, and municipal mayors. Lawyer Esmeralda Ladra, director of the Comelec Planning Department, said they plan to print the ballots by January. She said the current price for each ballot is at P2.90 but that they are still negotiating with the NPO for a lower price since Smartmatic-TIM will be providing the paper and equipment for the project. The ballots used in the 2007 elections were priced at P2.20. Meanwhile, Comelec ICT consultant Renato Garcia assured the public that the production of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in China is going smoothly. “From what we’ve seen, it seems that there is no possibility of delay," he said. Garcia said the assembly lines in the factory in Suzhou, China, can manufacture 3,000 PCOS machines in a day, which would allow them to produce 83,000 of the machines in less than 60 days. The Comelec had earlier said the first batch of 42,200 PCOS machines would be delivered in mid-December, with the remaining 40,000 in January. On the other hand, Larrazabal said they would be 98 percent finished with the site survey of poll precincts by the end of December. “It’s a tight schedule but still workable," he said. He said Smartmatic-TIM will be coordinating with the telecommunication companies to make the necessary arrangements for areas found to have no signal at all. - GMANews.TV