Seniors vote with ease in mall; others suffer at precincts

THE 71 senior citizens and two persons with disabilities (PWDs) of barangay Mabolo who were picked to cast their votes in SM City Cebu agreed it was a pleasant experience.

“Mas nindot ibotar diri kay ighuman, suroy diretso (It’s nicer to vote here because I can explore the mall after),” said 72-year-old Corazon Veloria, the last voter who arrived from Leyte after celebrating her mother’s 93rd birthday.

Mario Lucero, 75, who was assisted by his eldest daughter in filling his ballot, said this year’s barangay elections was his second time to vote inside a mall.

“Daghan man gud og gwapa diri (There are a lot of pretty women here),” he said in jest.

Seventy-year old Julieta Fontanar said she liked voting in the mall since it’s convenient and more orderly than voting in a school.

The three seniors participated in a pilot project of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for Accessible Polling Places for Senior Citizens and Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in preparation for the 2016 elections.

Voting in the special precinct in the Food Court of SM City Cebu began at 7 a.m., the same time as every polling precinct across the country.

Assistance

But voting at the mall ended at 12:15 p.m. or more than two hours ahead of the 3 p.m. cut-off period.

Out of the 75 voters, two two backed out due to health issues.

Comelec personnel fetched the selected seniors and PWDs from their homes and dropped them off at the mall entrance.

Volunteers accompanied them to the special precinct at the food court.

Arlene Gador, chairperson of the Commission on PWD voting, said the special precinct allows seniors and PWDs to choose the kind of assistance they need.

Six long tables were set up in the special precinct which accommodated two voters each, allowing a maximum of 12 voters to fill out ballots at a given time.

Voting time for seniors at the special precinct averaged five minutes, Gador said.

Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca said she is quite pleased with the feedback from the seniors who voted in the special polling precinct.

She said this showed that Comelec will face fewer problems if they expand this in 2016.

Padaca said APPs could be mall, a gym or whatever place that is comfortable and accessible to seniors and PWDs.

The 75 residents who signed consent forms were deleted from the voters’ list of local precincts and transferred to the special polling precinct’s list.

The other seniors who weren’t chosen trooped to the mall hoping to vote inside only to be turned away.

“We thought we could vote here since it was announced on TV. We had to go back to our precinct at Mabolo Elementary School,” said 64-year-old Damien Lucero and his 65-year-old wife Erlinda.

Others who went to the mall only to wind up inconvenienced were 82-year-old wheelchair-bound Dulce Savillon, 82, a resident of barangay Sambag II.

She was supposed to vote at Abellana National High School’s second floor.

Savillon’s family said they heard an advisory on the radio saying that seniors may vote at the special precinct in SM City Cebu.

Re-clustering

Because the school had no ramp leading to the second floor, the family opted to bring Savillon to SM.

Mabolo Senior Citizens Association President Raymundo Biaras said only Mabolo residents who signed consent forms two weeks ago were allowed to vote in the special precinct. With Correspondents Fe Marie Dumaboc and Christine Estrella