Boto Patrollers observe election road test

MANILA, Philippines - MOCK elections were marred by minor confusion and rejected ballots, Boto Patrollers in Manila reported Feb. 6 as they employed their “patrolling” skills to observe and report about the dry run for the May 10, 2010 elections. 

The Boto Patrollers - citizen journalists who contribute news materials and tips to the Boto Mo iPatrol Mo: Ako ang Simula (BMPM) campaign - said this showed that Commission on Elections (Comelec) systems may not yet be tight enough less than 100 days before elections, and that there are glitches in the way the counting machines accepted the paper ballots.

On the other hand, the Comelec leadership said the mock elections were “almost perfect,” with the results from nine polling centers having been transmitted to the central canvassing center in Comelec 11:11 a.m. - three hours after the start of the mock polls. The statement comes against minor glitches observed by Boto Patrollers, who reported about a voter receiving two ballots instead of one, ballots being rejected by the counting machine, and a voter actually having been able to vote twice.

The Patrollers observed elections in two schools in Taguig and another in Quezon City. All three schools had problems with the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines. 

But Comelec Education and Information Department Assistant Director Sonia Tiamson said the mock elections, along with the field tests months earlier, would allow Comelec to make adjustments and calibrate the machines if needed.

Raymard Gutierrez, a Boto Patroller in New Era Elementary School, in Quezon City reported at 9:03 a.m. that a ballot was rejected by the PCOS. As Comelec guidelines say ballots should be fed only twice into the machine, the New Era ballot was declared rejected after the third try.

By 9:37 a.m., Gutierrez said New Era had five rejected ballots, many because of over-shading of the ballots. “Lumampas ka lang ng konti sa bilog, malukot lang ng konti ang balota, rejected na ang ballot,” the Patroller said.

This caused a lot of irritation among the voters, Gutierrez said.

Boto Patrollers Reggie Espiritu, Euvelyn Mastulin and Rouch Dinglasan, who all stayed in the Gen. Papa High School in Taguig, separately reported relatively orderly elections. But they also observed problem with the machine. A ballot was rejected after four attempts to feed it into the machine. Patrollers said this was because the voter had with him, unknowingly, two ballots. This means the election officer who distributed the ballot mistakenly gave one voter two ballot sheets. That particular voter’s ballot was not casted as it was deemed rejected. The voter also did not have a chance for a second ballot, as election rules dictate. 

But the worst experience of the three election pilot areas in Manila was probably in the Maharlika Elementary School in Taguig.

The expected 50 voters failed to show up on time at this school. By 8:22 a.m., Boto Patrollers Patrick Villavicencio, Benjie Rogelio and Jessica Avila were separately reporting voter confusion.

About a dozen people appeared out of the supposed 50 identified voters in that school. Rogelio said many of these people failed to find their names in the supposed voters’ list. These people were informed the night before by acquaintances from the municipal hall and barangay offices that they would act as voters in the mock polls. When they showed up at the Maharlika school, their names weren’t in the list. Meanwhile, some of the voters in the list have not arrived.

In the end, the election officers in Maharlika made people line up to handpick from them 50 voters. There was no identification sought from these voters, and poll officers simply relied on a “master list” of all 200 voters from that precinct.

Three ballots were rejected in Maharlika because the machine did not accept these.

These Patrollers’ reports were incorporated into the news coverage of the ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs of the mock polls. It is, by numerous indications, a preview of how the May 10 cooperation between professional and citizen journalists will look like: with citizen journalists partnering with professionals and bolstering their coverage. It is beautiful and useful for Philippine democracy because it allows more eyes and ears to patrol the country’s most vulnerable process: elections.

The Patrollers’ participation in mock elections just made the case for why citizen journalism could work in an environment like the Philippines.

With this in mind, ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs invites all citizen journalists in the Philippines to Ako ang Simula: Himig ng Pagbabago, a free concert for all Boto Patrollers on Feb. 19, 2009, 6 p..m., at the UST Parade Grounds and Athletic Field. Tickets shall be distributed to Boto Patrollers in BMPM Booths in Center Road, ABS-CBN Compound, Mother Ignacia St., Quezon City Feb. 15 and 18, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and at the venue on concert day.

After the mock elections, this concert shall be Patrollers’ second stop in the road leading to the May 10 elections. Let’s get this show on the road!