Comelec Eyes Cebu as Pilot Area for TouchScreen Voting in 2016Elections

(PNA) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is eyeing Cebu as one of the possible pilot areas for touch screen voting in the 2016 national elections, an official said.

Lawyer Rafael Olaño, the new Comelec 7 director, said the Comelec Central Office advisory council recommended an automated election system for the next elections.

This includes the use of direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines which have touch screen features.

Olaño said that unlike the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) technology currently used by the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, voters no longer have to shade their ballots under this voting system innovation, speeding up the casting and canvassing of votes.

But Olaño said the Comelec en banc is still studying the possibility of using DRE as replacement for PCOS, considering its cost and compatibility to the Filipino culture.

Earlier reports said five to 10 DRE machines would be needed in each precinct, or around 800,000 units for the 80,000 polling precints, estimated to cost the country some P55 billion.

He said there would also be voters who believe that a voting system provide ballots as more credible.

“We still look for a paper trail. We do not yet trust a system where we cannot see our vote,” he said.

Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, Cebu provincial election supervisor, said there would still be a need for voters’ education and the conduct of trainings for teachers before the new system could be applied.

The DRE voting system was first used during the 2008 elections at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Castillano said that based on that experience, the Comelec has seen the negative side of the DRE system in which a voter gets a receipt after voting.

“After you voted you go to somebody who paid you, present the receipt and say I voted for you,” he said. (PNA) CTB/EB