New tips for high-tech polls

Keeping it simple for voters is one of the big challenges of poll automation for the May 2010 election.

Tips include classic advice like “bring a codigo” of the names of your favorite candidates.

Then there are new reminders that many worry will confuse or unnerve first-time users of a computer, especially those in remote, rural communities:

“Fully shade the oval in the ballot.”

“Don't over-vote. This may invalidate the contest.”

This and other challenges were highlighted yesterday in a live demonstration of an electronic vote counting machine by managers of Smartmatic-TIM held in Cebu City.

Voting is “quick and simple”, with “100% accuracy” said Miguel Avila, presentation and demonstration manager Smartmatic-TIM,the multi-national service provider hired by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to supply hardware, software and to set up an automated election process from balloting to canvassing in all 80,000 precincts in the country on May 10, 2010.

But if people are unfamiliar with the new steps or give in to external forces of vote-buying, fraud or bullying, the high-tech process , will be frustrated.

“Voters must be prepared,” said Avila.

“We need the the vigilance, cooperation, coordination and support of the citizens to guarantee the success of this project.”

He and Smartmatic-TEC regions manager Bonifacio Belen spoke in the forum “The Big Change: How to Count and Protect Votes with Poll Automation” at the Marcelo B. Fernan Cebu Press Center, one of the activities of 2009 Cebu Press Freedom Week.

With legal problems out of the way, the Comelec and implementors of poll automation are realizing that the race to prepare for the first automated Philippine elections will need a lot of public briefings and voter's education in their already tight schedule of less than eight months.

source :  Inquirer.Net