Mock poll clears fears

MANILA – Most voters who went through the voting process in the nationwide mock election Saturday of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it was actually easier than they thought.

Poll officials and its technology partner also reported that Saturday’s process is 100 percent successful although minor problems were noted in some areas. The mock election was conducted in nine areas nationwide.

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Loreto Jayme, 80, of Mabini, Cebu City, said he liked the new ballots better than those used in a manual election because he did not have to write the candidates’ names.

“I thought it was probably difficult because they had to teach us how to do it but it wasn’t,” he said, adding that loading the ballot into the machine, though not a breeze for him, was actually not hard.

After marking a ballot, a voter simply loads it into the slot of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine, which “grabs” the ballot, scans both sides, and then drops it through a chute into a translucent box.

Jayme’s ballot was initially rejected by the machine because he failed to adequately shade the corresponding ovals of his choice of candidates. At least half of each oval should be shaded.

When he corrected his error, his ballot was successfully scanned by the machine.

He said he has been voting during elections since he was 19 years old, and has made it a point for his nine children to know the importance of exercising one’s right of suffrage.

Rodulfo Alfante, 65, said using a PCOS machine actually made voting easier for them.

He took at least 16 minutes before he stood up to load his ballot into the machine, but it was because of his failing eyesight.

“It’s better now that I didn’t have to write my candidates’ names,” he said.

Duchess Veloso, 33, a teacher of City Central School who was also allowed to participate in the mock elections, said voter’s education is a must.

“It’s really important to explain the process to the public. I even shaded three party-list candidates when I was supposed to shade only one,” she said.

Her ballot was still accepted by the machine although she over-voted in the selection of a party-list representative, as the machine is programmed to invalidate only the portion where the voter committed a mistake and not the whole ballot.

Amparo Alvarado, 73, of Bulacao Cebu City used to worry about the automated elections, but Saturday’s mock polls eased some of her fears.

“It’s so much easier than the way we used to do things,” said Alvarado.

She credited voter education seminars in Barangay Bulacao-Pardo and a last-minute briefing on Saturday for her newfound confidence in automated elections.

Overall, the assessment of the mock elections mirrored the voters enthusiasm, despite some technical problems in the transmission of results from far-flung barangays to the canvassing centers.

But two hours after the voting ended in nine areas nationwide, including Bulacao and Mabini in Cebu City, all the results reached the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Manila.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, who observed the proceedings in Cebu City, said the mock election was efficient. If problems occur on Election Day, he said, contingency plans are in place.

“It’s better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. But let me qualify that we should not prepare for manual elections; we are preparing only as part of our back-up plan,” said Larrazabal.

Transmission of election returns finished just two hours after the voting period ended. Bulacao Community School in Cebu City was first to transmit the election data to the Comelec central server at 9:08 a.m.

“Before 10 or around 9:30 a.m., the data was almost complete because some of the precincts already reached the target of 50 voters, that's why they closed the voting and immediately transmitted,” said Genie Flororita, director of Comelec's Information and Technology Department.

Comelec earlier said voters need to protect their ballot because they would only be given one chance to vote.

Minor problems

Out of all the nine mock election sites, Maharlika Elementary School in Taguig City was the last precinct to transmit its data because of a reported confusion among voters. Transmission was completed at 11:11 a.m.

“There was a little bit of problem in a sense in Maharlika because there were some people who wanted to participate in the mock elections but were not listed as voters because the mock elections were confined only to registered voters in the village,” noted Comelec chairman Jose Melo.

A maximum of pre-selected 50 voters were allowed to participate in the mock polls. The voters were selected by the board of election inspectors (BEIs) assigned in the respective precinct. Only three precincts reported a 100 percent voter turnout.

One voter in Maharlika was able to vote twice after the BEI failed to apply indelible ink on the voter's finger.

On Election Day, indelible ink will be applied on the voter's right index finger as proof that a voter has already exercised his vote.

In New Era Elementary School in Quezon City, a poll machine failed to transmit the data to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) server on the first try.

“We had a problem with KBP when we tried to transmit three times. We were informed that the server was down,” said election official Ronald Allan Sindo.

But after the BEI printed the 22 copies of election returns, the machine was able to transmit to the KBP server immediately.

Dioneda reported that all the poll machines were able to transmit the election data through mobile networks and without the use of Smartmatic's back-up satellites.

In Davao City, nine out of 50 selected voters did not appear in Generoso Elementary School, Barangay Bago Aplaya, while 17 out of 50 did not appear in A. Navarro Elementary School in Barangay Likanan, Lasang.

Earliest

Bulacao in Cebu City sent the earliest results nationwide, at 9:08 a.m. Ten minutes after the canvassing center at City Hall received these results, it finished sending these to the Comelec central office.

Mabini’s results reached the Comelec nearly an hour and 15 minutes later, after an erratic cellular signal delayed the electronic transmission of results.

Log of election returns transmission:

1. Cebu City - Bulacao Community School - 9:08 a.m. (49 voters)
2. Baguio City - Community Youth Center - 9:50 a.m. (50 voters)
3. Baguio City - Pines City National High School - 9:54 a.m. (49 voters)
4. Cebu City Board of Canvassers - 9:59 a.m.
5. Quezon City - New Era Elementary School - 10:02 a.m. (46 voters)
6. Taguig City - Gen. Ricardo Papa Memorial High School - 10:18 a.m. (50 voters)
7. Quezon City Board of Canvassers - 10:18 a.m.
8. Baguio City Board of Canvassers - 10:19 a.m.
9. Davao City - Generoso Elementary School - 10:21 a.m. (49 voters)
10. Cebu City - Mabini Elementary School - 10:23 a.m. (50 voters)
11. Davao City - Alejandra Navarro Elementary School - 10:26 a.m. (46 voters)
12. Davao City Board of Canvassers - 10:50 a.m.
13. Taguig City - Maharlika Elementary School - 11:11 a.m. (47 voters)
14. Taguig City Board of Canvassers - 11:28 a.m.
15. Taguig-Pateros Board of Canvassers - 11:54 a.m.

Almost perfect

Melo assessed the transmission during the nationwide mock elections as “almost perfect.”

For his part, Smartmatic Asia-Pacific president Cesar Flores described the election exercise as successful.

Flores added the mock polls were held to test if the hardware and software of the automated machines will behave as expected.

“Let's not kid ourselves because on election day, we will have different issues regarding this...We know from the start that we will have to rely on contingency measures. It does not mean that the system is not working. It means there is a reality related to communication that we will have to address,” he noted.

With the feedback from BEIs and election officials from the conducted exercise, Comelec will be making some adjustments and improvement on BEI and voters' education and probably the general instructions in the coming days.

Winners

National hero Dr. Jose Rizal would be our president this year, the results of Saturday’s mock polls showed.

Rizal got the highest score among the presidential candidates with 118 votes.

Marcelo del Pillar was elected vice president with a total of 76 votes.

For senator, Aquino, Benigno Q. obtained the biggest number of votes with 214 followed by Aquino, Benigno Jr. with 208.

Others who make it to the magic 12 are former president Corazon C. Aquino with 193; Epifanio C. Delos Santos (183); Robert Z. Barbers (171); Pio Del Pilar, (161); Julian C. Felipe (154); Francisco S. Dagohoy (153); Regidor R. Dela Rosa (152); Macario S. De Leon (151); Mariano C. Alavrez (150), and Felipe E. Agoncillo with 147 votes.

The winning candidates for party-list and the votes they obtained are as follows: Bamboo (21), Manomano (19), Apo Hiking Society (19), 14K (16), Maria Cafra (13), MYMP (13), Natural Born (10), Aegis (9), Mi Ultimo Adios (9), Bukas Palad (7), El Filibusterismo (7), Pinay (6), Mocha Girls (6), Men Oppose (6), Parokya ni Edgar (6), Mastaplann (5) and Banyuhay (5). (RHM/JKV/PDF of Sun.Star Cebu/ABC/ Kathrina Alvarez/With FP and MSN/Jade Zaldivar of Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)