Casting votes

In principle we agree with the move to automate elections. The recent relatively successful and limited mock elections are just one step in making sure the elections on May 10 run fairly, honestly and efficiently. There were some issues with regards to transmission, specifically dropped or poor wireless signals. We hope that this issue can be addressed by working with the telecommunications companies to remedy the situation. There have also been reports that senior citizens have experienced difficulty filling out the ballots; part of the problem is age related issues, the other is voter education. The most recent estimates are that 4 percent of the population (approximately 4 million) is aged 65 or older. This issue can be addressed either through printing out ballots that are senior citizen friendly or having trained individuals on hand to assist. This also holds true for individuals who are either blind or sight handicapped.

The benefits in terms of speed and accuracy of the vote count are obvious. A serious issue in the past — with manual counts — is the delay in reporting vote counts. Along with the delays come issues of accurate reporting. Automated voting should theoretically eliminate this issue. What we hope is that length of time it takes to tabulate and transmit votes has been accurately calculated; thus, it will be immediately known if a vote count is taking an unnaturally long time to be reported. Reports indicate that for local elections, the results should be known within two hours of the polls closing. On a national level, the results should be known in 36 hours. We look forward to seeing a situation similar to coverage of international elections: as soon as polling data from an area are transmitted and verified the result is announced through the media. One way to convince the people that the election is fair and honest is to be as transparent as possible throughout the entire process. No matter how foolproof or technologically advanced a system is, there will always be a way to work-around it and cheat.  Full, open and transparent coverage will help combat this concern.

No automated vote system will ever completely eliminate the issue of vote-buying. This is a constant issue, not only in developing nations but developed as well. There are a few organizations here in the Philippines, such as the Not for Sale Movement, that are working to try and eliminate vote buying and vote selling. Vote buying undermines our government system and all efforts should be made to eliminate it. Without regard for politics, we applaud any group or organization that advocates and works toward eliminating vote buying.

An automated voting system is just the first step in fixing our elections. We still need to improve our voter education programs and implement measures to eliminate ghost voters. Of course, one part in voter education is making sure that voters know how to vote. We were happy then to see newspapers running articles educating the public on the new voting process. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a larger campaign to educate voters. 

One of the most basic ways to cheat in the elections is to take advantage of voters who are not familiar with the process. We hope that the Comelec and voter advocacy groups are working to create easy to use manuals or step-by-step flow charts that will help voters understand the new voting process. These can easily be distributed prior to May 10, or even given before voters enter the polling location. It is more difficult to take advantage of voters who know what they are doing and understand the voting process.