Manila jail inmates to vote, but won't get to use PCOS machine

MANILA, Philippines - Some 660 Manila City Jail inmates shall vote on Election Day at their detention facility, but their ballots will not immediately be read by the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines – the ballots will be sent back to the polling center where they are registered.

In a press conference at the Manila Police District headquarters, MPD director Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay said a Special Board of Election Inspectors, accompanied by poll watchers, shall bring the ballots from Arellano High School in Sta. Cruz, Manila to the Manila City Jail on election day.

After filling out the ballots, the voting inmates shall hand them over to the SBEIs who shall secure the filled-out ballots for transit back to the Arellano High School.

“For whatever reason, the Comelec did not provide PCOS machines at the Manila City Jail, so there is no recourse but to manually bring the ballots to and from the polling center,” Magtibay told reporters.

He discounted the possibility of ballot tampering or ballot switching along the way since the SBEIs shall be escorted by police mobile car crew and Special Weapons and Tactics personnel. Magtibay failed to say whether the same procedure shall be done in other jails in the country.

According to the Commission on Elections, the PCOS machines will not read ballots that had been stained or scratched. Sources said the transit could affect the ballots, and inmates will not know whether their votes were accepted by the PCOS machines since the SBEIs will be the one to put their ballots in the machine.