Tuesday, January 30, 2007 Local poll officials apprehensive on election automation
WITH only four months left before the May 14 elections, local poll officials are apprehensive about the automation of the elections because of the lack of equipment and training of personnel.
Cebu City Election Officer for the North District Marchel Sarno said it will be difficult for them to automate the entire election process if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) central office orders them to do so.
Apart from not having enough computers, there is also very little time left to train the Comelec staff who will be in charged of the computers, Sarno said.
The Election Automation Law seeks to have the entire election process computerized, from the voting, counting, recounting and canvassing of votes, down to the transmission of the results.
But with limited resources, only the automation of the transmission process may be doable, said Sarno.
“If there is already a statement and directive from Comelec Manila regarding the automation of the elections, maglisod gyud ta ana, sa training na lang daan lisod na kay gamay na lang atong time to train the staff and to go ahead with the procurement process,” Sarno told Sun.Star Cebu.
He further said that the funds needed to purchase the computers and other equipment will be charged against the Modernization Fund but up to this time, it still has not be released to Comelec.
Although the computerization of the transmission of the election results will work like a simple electronic mail or short message sending, equipment and computers will still be needed to ensure that the procedure is tamper-proof.
“We can probably push through with the automation of the transmission process but we have to secure everything first, the computers and telephone lines. But to automate everything at the precinct level, personally, I think it’s not doable anymore,” Sarno added. (LCR)
