New Cebu City voters’ list found error-ridden

CEBU CITY — The bottom line is that computer-based operations, whether in counting or in voting, will be used in the May 10 elections.

With five days to go before the polls, Commission on Elections (Comelec) officer Simaco Labata said the agency is shelving the new and updated computer-generated voters’ list purportedly because of entry incompatibilities and precinct data mix-up.

It will take days to rectify the errors and thus, Labata said polling precincts in the city will now have to use the old computer-generated list.

"Dili na gyud ni nato magamit kay wala na ta’y (We really cannot use it because we no longer have) time to correct the list. If we will use this, it will create confusion among the voters," Labata said.

The city Comelec office only learned that the new computer-generated voters’ list was littered with errors when it arrived the other day.

Computer-generated voters’ lists are printed at the Comelec office in Manila and thus, any alterations that have to be made to rectify errors also have to be done in Manila.

It is yet unclear how voters who registered under the automated system, will be affected by the reversal to the old registration system.

City Comelec officials merely gave loose answers, saying the new registrants have been incorporated in the old voters’ list.

The Comelec had boasted that it was promoting an election modernization scheme to guard against fraud and cheating.

Called the Voters’ Registration and Identification System, the project operated on integrated solutions for voter registration, including the development and maintenance of a secure electoral database.

The new computer-generated voters’ list would have been effective in ensuring authentic and tamper-free votes with such data as name, address, thumbprint and the voter’s picture. "Flying voters" can be detected because thumbprints and photos are compared to detect inconsistencies.

But the error-ridden voters’ list is not the first and only lapse the local Comelec has seen. There were also errors in voters’ identification cards.

Labata said they cannot rectify these flaws because only the Comelec’s Manila office can make the alterations.

Like the listing, the voters’ identification cards could not be released because of erroneous entries. In lieu of these ID cards, voters are required to bring their registration forms, together with any valid identification such as a driver’s license, school ID or company ID to ensure they are the ones on the list. — Freeman News Service