Thursday, March 5, 2009

On automated elections

I am already excited about the upcoming 2010 automated elections. Personally, I think this a good opportunity for the COMELEC to prove that our country can have clean and honest elections. Not to mention that a lot of time, a non-renewable resource, will be saved, to the delight of our public school teachers, election volunteers and COMELEC officials.

However, I have some concerns about this modernization scheme. I hope these will be addressed by the COMELEC's issuance of the upcoming elections' terms of reference. First, what will be the guidelines in determining the number of machines to be designated for each precinct? Second, what will be the procedure followed in the assistance of our 'technology-challenged' voters? Given this procedure, how will the sanctity of thier ballots be protected? Third, what contingency measures will be implemented in cases of power outages, technology lapses and the like? Lastly, how will recounts be conducted, considering that everything will be 'digitized'?

In any event, I think having clean and honest elections hinges on a 'manual' procedure, that is, cleaning up our voters' list.

Still, even with its inevitable 'growth pains', this is a welcome change and undeniably a red-letter day in our nation's history.

No comments: