A ROADSHOW in Lapu-Lapu City that would showcase the latest vote counting machines (VCM) will be used during the midterm elections this May has been successful, poll officials said on Tuesday, February 19.
Lawyer Ann Janette Lamban, Lapu-Lapu City election officer, said that close to 300 first time voters or 90 percent of their expected audience participated in their road show at the Lapu-Lapu City College in Barangay Gun-ob.
Lamban said she was pleased by the turnout especially that during their previous road shows held in some parts of Metro Cebu, only a few people came to participate.
Giving priority to students and first-time voters to use the VCM was one factor to the huge turnout during their roadshow in Lapu-Lapu City, she said.
First-time voters and students were given a chance to vote using the VCM by allowing them to try shading the sample ballot then feeding it to the VCM.
“We orient them on the integrity of the ballot and how the machine is going to safeguard their ballots and count their votes. They are able to see that the machine even provides them a receipt to show how they voted. We also show them how a machine invalidates a ballot if a person puts erasures,” Lamban said, in Cebuano.
Meanwhile, the Lapu-Lapu City Election Office said they already sent letters to the 53 aspiring candidates in the city to participate in a peace covenant signing on Friday, February 22.
Of the 53 candidates, five are running for mayor while another five are running for congressman of Lapu-Lapu City’s lone district.
Lamban encouraged all aspiring candidates to participate in the peace covenant signing to show to the public that they for a peaceful, honest and orderly elections.
A mass will be held before the peace covenant signing. (GCM of Superbalita Cebu/JKV)