THE Commission on Election (Comelec) encouraged voters to prepare a list of candidates when they vote during the election day on Monday, May 13, to hasten the voting process.
Lawyer Marchel Sarno, Cebu City South District election officer, said they will allow voters to bring a list of candidates once they enter the voting area.
“I want to emphasize that voting time will really depend on the speed of the voter. We encourage the voters to bring their own list,” he said.
Sarno said a voter may take at least three minutes to vote if he has not prepared a list candidates whom he will vote.
Sarno said the process of verifying the identity of the voter through the voters registration and verification machine (VRVM) may only take less than a minute.
The VRVM, which is a new automated system to verify the identity of voters, will be used for the first time in this year's elections.
Though the feeding of the ballot to the vote counting machine (VCM) will just take less than a minute also, the voting itself may take a while, Sarno said.
Once a voter will know his precinct number, they can immediately proceed to have his identity verified through the VRVM.
After the verification, a voter will be given his official ballot, fill it out and feed it to the VCM.
On Monday, May 13, voting centers will officially open at 6 a.m. and will close at 6 p.m. to provide more time for voters to cast their votes.
Since a clustered voting precinct is expected to accommodate 800 to 1,000 voters, Sarno said that a total of 12 voters may cast their votes simultaneously.
Right after the voting process will be closed, Sarno said results will then be transmitted to the canvassing area.