SMARTMATIC, the partner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the 2010 automated polls, has delivered the first batch of ballot boxes.

The first batch of 5,000 ballot boxes was delivered on March 8 and was released by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) a day after.

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It was delivered and will be stored at the Foreign Surface Mail Distribution Center (FSMDC) at the Philpost office in Port Area, Manila.

“We now have 5,000 ballot boxes that arrived and we are expecting 5,600 ballot boxes tomorrow (March 11). We will have ballot boxes arriving every so often,” said Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal Wednesday.

Smartmatic, under its Memorandum of Agreement with the poll body, will be producing 77,000 ballot boxes corresponding to the number of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used in May elections.

Earlier, Comelec chairman Jose Melo said they chose not to undergo a bidding process for the production of the ballot boxes to ensure that flaws in the design will be avoided.

“That would be hard because if it will be worked on by others, it might have defects. It will not fit the PCOS machines. That will be a bigger problem but if the manufacturer of the PCOS machines will be the same manufacturer as that of the ballot boxes, then all the responsibilities will be with them,” Melo explained.

The add-on contract entails P243,367,740 million for the ballot boxes.

Smarmatic targets to ship all ballot boxes from Taiwan to the country by the third week of April.

Design

The new hard plastic ballot boxes will be made from polypropylene material and measures 36 inches in length and 20 inches in width.

According to Comelec, the new black ballot boxes will be harder to seal and has more security features compared to the steel yellow ballot boxes used in previous elections.

“It is designed to secure the ballots. (It can also) deal with the weight and the conditions of transportation,” said Smarmatic Asia-Pacific President Cesar Flores.

“Even if its hard plastic, it's still secure. It will protect the ballot and there are windows in the ballot box so that you can see your ballot when you drop it,” added Larrazabal.

The boxes can fit 2,000 ballots with enough space considering the behavior of the ballots.

After the elections, the board of election inspector chairman would need to place padlocks in the four areas around the box.

The old yellow ballot boxes, on the other hand, will be stored by the commission for future purposes.

Shipment

The ballot boxes will be shipped out together with the PCOS machines. The shipment schedule is yet to be announced by Comelec.

“The delivery of the ballot boxes will be together with the machines. Before it will be shipped out, we will be calling the political parties to inform them of the shipping schedule so that they will be able to track the shipment of the PCOS, the ballot boxes and equipment used for the elections including the official ballots,” said Larrazabal.

The ballot boxes and automated machines must be delivered to the polling places three to seven days before May 10 for testing and sealing and procedures.

The boxes and PCOS machines will either be shipped straight to the polling places, in hubs, or first to a hub before transported to a sub-hub, explained Larrazabal.

Unlike the voting machines, the ballot boxes will be generic and will not be precinct specific.

“All we have to make sure is that each voting machine will arrive with the ballot box,” said Flores.

All official ballots meanwhile will be delivered straight to the municipal treasurer's office. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)