Mock polls bare problems; Justin Bieber wins

Justin Bieber      AP file photo

Some voters didn’t know what to do, technical problems delayed voting in some precincts, some ballots were rejected and there were transmission problems in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Despite these problems and the low turnout of participants in some precincts, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the mock polls conducted on Saturday in selected areas nationwide went smoothly and pinpointed problems that they needed to solve before the actual elections on May 9.

“By and large, it was smooth, but at the same time you could see that we did not have as many voters as we would actually expect during election day,” Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said, adding that it was understandable considering what was conducted was just a dry run.

The Comelec expected 25,609 voters to participate in the exercise but turnout was 60 percent or less in many test areas.

“The purpose of these mock polls really was to try to simulate as early as possible what could happen in the actual elections,” Bautista said, adding that there was still time to improve on several aspects of the polls, including a system to speed up the voting process.

Lawrence Panis, 26, who was first to cast a vote in the mock poll facility at Baseco in Manila took 11 minutes to vote using the automated voting machine.

Bautista said the estimated ideal time for voting was 2-3 minutes.

The test ballots listed names of international and local celebrities as candidates.

In northern Luzon, with television cameras trained on him, Raymundo Vinluan, 64, took his ballot from the election inspectors as the first voter at West Central Elementary School in Dagupan City. But he suddenly turned back, approached an election inspector and asked, “Why are the names of my candidates not there?”

Vinluan said he was surprised he was being asked to choose from people like Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson in the presidential race.

Went for TV celebs

Vinluan went back to vote after the election officials explained what the exercise was all about. His choices for congressman were television and movie personalities Toni Gonzaga, Zanjoe Marudo, Jackie Rice and Michael V.

Marino Salas, provincial election supervisor, said the mock polls held in Dagupan and Alaminos cities were successfully transmitted from the precincts to the city board of canvassers, the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas and to the [Comelec’s] central server.

But Lucia de Vera, an officer of the local Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) in the Luzon region, said the vote counting machines revealed glitches. For instance, she said, the machine rejected some ballots.

“There’s also a need to assist some people who do not know what to do when they enter the polling place. But they should be assisted outside so that no one will see who they vote for,” De Vera said.

In the Visayas, test precincts in Iloilo City got the participation of 60 percent of expected voters at four polling precincts in the capital town of Kalibo and Malay town, said lawyer Ian Lee Ananoria, Comelec Aklan supervisor.

In Mabolo Elementary School in Cebu, however, only 15 of the 100 residents asked to join the mock polls showed up, forcing poll officials to ask 10 volunteers to cast their votes.

But Marchel Sarno, election officer of Cebu City North District, said that since the purpose of the mock election was to determine the accuracy of the machines and the transmission network, the exercise could be considered “a success.”

“Our overall assessment is we don’t have a problem,” Sarno said.

Problem may be Manila

But there were problems. Both the Cebu City Board of Canvassers (CCBOC) and the Cebu Provincial Board of Canvassers (CPBOC) failed to transmit the results to the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).

Sarno and Cebu poll supervisor Lionel Castillano said the transmission problem could be in Manila and not in Cebu because they had no problems with the satellite signal.

Sarno and Castillano decided to pack up at 5 p.m. when they failed to transmit after several attempts.

Mock elections at Lusaran Elementary School, in an upland village in Cebu, did not start on time because it took Smartmatic technicians and the Board of Election Inspectors almost two hours to set up the VCM.

In Mindanao, the Barangay Dadiangas East precinct in General Santos City got only a 35 percent turnout of voters, prompting poll officials to tap 27 people milling around the precinct “just to achieve more than 50 percent turnout.

The mock voting started at 7 a.m. with senior citizens and people with disabilities complaining about the lack of poll personnel to assist them. Those with eyesight problems complained that the lines indicating the shading areas in the nearly 2-foot long ballots were blurred.

The machine used at Dadiangas East initially failed to make contact with the Comelec server.

Joseph Montojo, the BEI chair, had to restart the machine.

Justin, Ariana win

By the way, partial unofficial results of the mock polls showed “presidential candidate” Justin Beiber trashed rival Taylor Swift with a total of 40 votes in the GenSan precinct. In the Visayas, Bieber and Ariana Grande emerged victorious. Mock results in Luzon and Manila were not released. Tina G. Santos in Manila; Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon; Nestle Semilla and Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas; Allan Nawal and Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao

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