WOULD all voters have the chance to vote come May 10, 2010?

Rep. Ompong Plaza raised this question over coffee last Saturday, pointing out that an ordinary voter will be able to fill up the very long ballot in 10 minutes. From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. or exactly 11 hours or 660 minutes, some 1,000 voters should be able to cast their votes.

This ideally means a voter should be able to feed his or her ballot into the automated counting machines every 36 seconds because each machine can process 1,000 ballots. But reality is different. We have a vast majority of computer illiterates.

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Even computer-savvy professionals will need at least five minutes to fill up the ballots and several seconds more for looking up one’s name and placing one’s signature. Note that many even take time in shading lotto tickets, how much more the long ballots?

Weeks ago, Plaza’s party mate and Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) presidential contender Chiz Escudero told Cebu reporters that it took him eight minutes to fill up a ballot in a mock poll. (His Cebu supporters said the senator was the only one brave enough to face the Cebu media during a press freedom forum last month.)

Still, there is this likely possibility of voters clogging up the classrooms at the voting centers because of the time for them to fill up the very long ballots. The congressman from the lone district of Agusan del Sur expressed fears that long lines of irate voters will still be outside the voting centers come closing time. This volatile situation raises the possibility of a “failure of elections” scenario.

Because of the danger of a failure of election, Plaza called on top officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to be personally responsible if this possible Election Day nightmare happens.

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Nevertheless, I figured that election officials at the precinct level will have to ensure at least 20 or more voters are filling up the ballots at the same time. Those who finish should immediately line up to cast their ballots into the counting machines. There should be no break in the queue for the system to accommodate everybody.

Let’s hope the voters will come in droves early and fill up their ballots fast and in a correct manner.

More importantly, let’s hope Comelec will be able to finally function efficiently in moving the voters along in an orderly fashion as they exercise their right to vote.

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Another concern will be the penchant of a lot of voters to wait outside the voting areas for the bagman or “pagador” before actually casting their votes. The automated polling system is not designed to solve vote buying.

The pagador should do their thing early so their candidate’s votes will be counted. Sayang ang kwarta nga gilabay. I am saying this not because I approve of vote buying. Kini lang kon paspasay gyud ang atong concern.

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Senator Escudero, who was here over the weekend, said he will push for the expansion of EPIRA, the law that seeks to level the playing field in the Philippine electric power industry, so more investors, like the ones in Toledo City and Naga, will invest in Cebu.

Chiz, it seems, is more attuned to local sentiments on the power issue than Cebu-based environmental lawyers who recently earned the ire of Naganhons.

As I have been saying all along, Cebuanos prefer reliable and affordable supply of electricity than enduring long brownouts as our contribution to lowering the world’s emissions of greenhouse gasses. A progressive economy that relies on a stable supply of electricity makes us more capable of dealing with the impact of climate change.

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The Noynoy-Mar tandem has strengthened local organization and its links with the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan by naming Cebu City Councilor Hilario “Junjun” Davide III as provincial chairman of the Liberal Party. It’s high time the Liberals organize at the grassroots level so they can convert the popularity of Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas into actual votes.

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