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Saturday's mock polls went well, says Comelec chairman


Saturday’s mock elections nationwide went ahead with minimal problems, with precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines working despite some glitches at a Quezon City precinct, Commission on Elections chairman Jose Melo said. “They [were] very orderly. And the transmission [was] going on very well," Melo said, adding that no signal jammers had hampered the transmission process unlike in earlier field tests. Apart from five rejected ballots, the machine at the New Era Elementary School in Quezon City functioned properly, with GMANews.TV observing voters at the school breezing through the process. “It was a fairly smooth process. The transmission [of election data] to the City Board of Canvassers in the Quezon City Hall was done in one minute and 17 seconds," said Ronald Sindo, Comelec representative at the New Era school. He said this was faster than the Comelec’s target of a two-minute transmission time. Election data were also sent to the Comelec main office, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP). Transmission to the Comelec and PPCRV went smoothly, but the transmission to the KBP succeeded only after the fourth try shortly before 11 a.m. “The servers of KBP were initially down. We also learned that other areas had difficulty connecting to the KBP too," Sindo said. The Comelec’s main office first received election data from Cebu City at 9:59 a.m., followed by the New Era Elementary School. Election data from the Taguig precinct was received last. Saturday’s mock polls were conducted simultaneously in selected precincts nationwide — three in Metro Manila and two each in the cities of Baguio, Cebu and Davao. GMA News’ Balitanghali newscast reported that too many voters who were not on the Comelec list turned up on Saturday, causing delays in the transmission of the election data.
‘President Jose Rizal’ The “official ballots" used in the mock elections contained names of heroes and local bands for selected national positions, instead of this year’s official candidates. At the New Era Elementary School, the winning candidate for president was Jose Rizal with 22 votes, and Melchora de Ramos for vice president, who earned 12 votes. Rizal won the 'presidency' at the national level, according to the Comelec. (See: Dr. Jose Rizal wins in Comelec’s mock presidential polls) The casting of 50 votes during Saturday’s mock polls at the school took a little over an hour, with the first voter arriving shortly after 8 a.m. and the last voter finishing at 9:15 am. “Maayos naman. In less than five minutes, natapos na ako (It looks orderly. I finished in less than five minutes)," said Rebecca Paynor, 35, one of Saturday’s voters. Paynor, however, pointed out the small size of the printed text on the ballots, which could be difficult to read especially for older people.

FILLING UP A LONG BALLOT. One of the voters on Saturday' mock elections at the New Era Elementary School in Quezon City fills up a sample ballot to be used in the country's first automated elections in May. Nikka Corsino
Bella Rejano, 57, also breezed through the process. “Mas maganda itong automation ngayon kaysa sa manual elections. Mas mabilis (This automation we have now is better than manual elections. It’s faster)," Rejano said. Rejano, a teacher at New Era, will also be serving as a member of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) in the upcoming elections. Despite not having been trained yet, she is confident that she will perform her election duties with ease, the same way she did on Saturday’s casting of votes. “Wala namang pangamba [sa pagbabantay sa darating na eleksyon], dahil mukhang madali lang naman ang aming gagawin (There’s no worry [in doing our election duties], since it appears to be an easy task)," she said. “The mock elections appeared to proceed quickly, but that’s surely because the ballots being filled out did not list real candidates. That means they can just choose anyone since the list contained names of bands and national heroes," Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes Jr., one of Saturday’s poll watchers, said in Filipino. “On election day, we might need more time to fill out a real ballot containing real candidates’ names," he added.
SIGNING ELECTION RETURNS. An election watcher signs Election Returns after these are verified by members of the BEI. Nikka Corsino
Do not overvote; shade properly But the bigger problem in the voting process at New Era was more ominous than a mere question of time. Four ballots were rejected by the scanner and placed in sealed envelopes. Smartmatic/TIM representative Miguel Avila said the ballots had been rejected due to improper shading of the oval-shaped space beside the choice. “The machine will interpret this as an ambiguous mark and reject it," Avila explained, as he warned against practices that will prompt the machine to reject ballots. Among these is shading more than one oval for a position that requires only one choice. “Do not overvote because it will invalidate that particular position. Fully shade each oval," Avila emphasized to reporters. In case of overvoting, the votes for that position will not be counted by the machine, and record only the items that had been properly shaded. Avila said the Comelec and Smartmatic have agreed upon a marking threshold of 50 percent for each shaded part to be considered valid. “There’s a configurable marking threshold that Comelec and Smartmatic/TIM agreed on, which is 50 percent of the oval. Meaning, pag ‘di po umabot ng 50 percent ang shading ng isang oval, hindi po iyon maka-count (if the shading of an oval does not reach 50 percent, that will not be counted) as a valid part. We call that an ambiguous mark," he said. Avila showed reporters one rejected ballot whose ovals were merely dotted and not shaded properly. He shaded them fully and fed the ballot into the machine, which subsequently accepted it. On election day, an official ballot can only be fed into the machine a maximum of two times. If the machine rejects the ballot twice, that ballot will be rendered invalid and placed inside an envelope, which will be sealed for further inspection by the Comelec, Sindo said.
REJECTED BALLOT. A closeup of a ballot that was rejected by the machine because it contained what Smartmatic representative Miguel Avila identified as ambiguous marks. Instead of fully shading the ovals, the voter simply dotted them, which Avila said resulted in the rejection of the ballot. GMANews.TV
However, Reyes voiced concerns over voter disenfranchisement in case a ballot is rejected due to marking mistakes, but the voter is not given a new ballot or a chance to re-shade the ovals if that is still possible. “Kung ako botante at iniluwa nung makina iyong balota ko, siguro naman dapat ipaliwanag sa akin kung paano nangyari iyon (If I were a voter and the machine spit out my ballot, I suppose they should explain to me why that happened)," Reyes pointed out. Sindo clarified that the Comelec’s general instructions are not clear whether voters whose ballots are rejected the first time will be given a second chance. “Dapat mapaalalahanan ng mga miyembro ng BEI ang mga botante kung may mga pagkakamali doon sa kanyang pagsi-shade (BEI members should remind voters if there are mistakes in the shading). That is why we are conducting this mock election activity because we understand and we believe that the system is not yet perfect," Sindo said, adding that the Comelec might come up with rules to address these concerns. PPCRV chair confident Despite the minor glitches, however, PPCRV chairman Henrietta de Villa is confident of this year’s full automation. “I can see that the machine is working well. It will definitely minimize cases of fraud so long as we follow the orderly way that the Comelec designed… I am very happy, because there is a great possibility that those things such as dagdag-bawas (vote-padding and -shaving) and even vote buying will be minimized," De Villa said. “[Those] who are afraid because they have never held a computer or used the computer [need not worry] because the only contact the voter has with the machine is when he or she inserts the ballot [into] the machine. There is no encoding… other than that," she added. — JV/NPA, GMANews.TV
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