Voter Meets The Ballot - Niel Lim - November 2009

VOTER MEETS THE BALLOT

Automation and Change Managemen for the May 2010 National Elections

MANUAL

AUTOMATED

ELECTIONS

ELECTIONS

One Precinct, One Ballot Box

One Clustered Precinct, One PCOS

Voters write candidates’ names on the ballot Manual Counting

Voters shade the circle of candidates’ names on the ballot

320,415 80,136 Established Precincts

Clustered Precincts

Established Precincts have up to 200 voters

Clustered Precincts will have up to 1000 voters

There are 320,415 ballot boxes

There will be 80,136 PCOS machines

ADJUSTMENT Voting period will be increased from 8 hours (7am to 3pm) to 11 hours (7am to 6pm)

CONCERN 11 hours may not be enough for 1,000 people to finish voting

WRITING SHADING There will still be a paper ballot

ADJUSTMENT Voters can’t change their votes

CONCERNS Because the new ballot will present all options, some voters may be prone to over voting Old voters may not be able to understand

MANUAL COUNTING

AUTOMATED COUNTING

BEIs count the votes by reading them one by one and tallying them on election returns

The Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) will automatically scan the ballot, count the votes upon submission of voter

ADJUSTMENT Voters will directly engage the PCOS and must know how to submit the ballot

CONCERNS The PCOS may be rigged; it may contain programmed results even before election begins Machine failure

AUTOMATED MANUAL CANVASSING CANVASSING BEIs sum up the tallied votes before giving to Congress

The PCOS will automatically transmit the tallied results per machine to COMELEC

ADJUSTMENT BEIs will not count the votes; Voters will not see a public counting

CONCERNS The PCOS may be rigged; it may contain programmed results even before election begins Machine failure

SECURITY MEASURES PCOS machines require a password, PIN, authorized digital signature and is equipped with a 128bit encryption

CONTINUITY MEASURES There are available back-up PCOS machines Paper ballots can still be counted

6 to 8 Average Voting Time Minutes

By Age: Participants aged 17–21 had the fastest average time at 5 minutes and 26 seconds, while those aged 60–83 had the slowest average time at 7 minutes and 18 seconds By Occupation: Students and teachers had the fastest average time at 5 minutes and 15 seconds, while the retired/elderly

GENERAL COMMENTS New method of filling up the ballot (shading) is preferable but some found the ballot too long Many participants were surprised with the number of possible candidate-options Some participants found it confusing to have the list of

RECOMMENDATIONS Polling areas should have a holding room where voters can be oriented/reviewed on how to fill up the ballot through clear audiovisual presentations or trained volunteers

RECOMMENDATIONS Instructions in the ballot should be in Filipino or in the predominant local dialect

RECOMMENDATIONS Where possible, candidate-options for each position should be kept in the same column and/or ballot page

RECOMMENDATIONS Visual tools, such as color-coding, should be used in the final design of the ballot to distinguish the list of candidateoptions for one position from candidate-options for another position

RECOMMENDATIONS Voter education should familiarize voters with the ballot

RECOMMENDATIONS There should be ballot orientation activities customized for senior citizens and for voters with special needs (literacy, persons with disabilities, etc..)

RECOMMENDATIONS Large replicas of the ballot and a voting process flowchart in both English and local dialects should be made available in public places

RECOMMENDATIONS At least 24 voting stations should be set up in each clustered precinct

VOTER MEETS THE BALLOT

Automation and Change Managemen for the May 2010 National Elections