Manual village, youth polls turn some teachers off

Some public school teachers have begged off from serving in the May 14 village and youth council elections.

But the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said there was no shortage of teachers who could serve as election tellers.

James Jimenez, Comelec spokesperson, said in an interview that the reason cited by teachers in begging off from election duty was the manual process of the voting.

Jimenez said some of those who begged off were also “familiar with the procedures only for automated election.”

The Comelec needed at least 531,000 teachers to man up to 177,000 polling precincts on May 14. —Julie M. Aurelio