Local absentee voting for media, uniformed personnel, gov’t workers begins

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The Comelec is implementing automated voting for local absentee voters for the first time

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino voters who will be working on election day have a three-day local absentee voting (LAV) period starting Monday, April 28.

Around 57,600 local absentee voters, such as media workers, government workers, and uniformed personnel, have until Wednesday, April 30 to cast their votes. The largest group of voters is from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, of whom over 29,000 are voting ahead of election day.

Other examples of workers voting in advance include workers in the Philippine National Police, Commission on Elections (Comelec), Department of Education, and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, among others.

The Comelec posted the LAV venues for each region on Facebook on Monday.

Local absentee voters may only vote for national positions — senatorial bets and party-list groups. By applying for LAV, they forego being able to vote for local positions at their assigned precincts.

This is the first time that the LAV is being conducted with automated counting machines (ACM). Previously, LAV voters manually wrote down their candidates’ names on a paper which was dropped in a ballot box and manually counted.

The ACM-capable ballots will be kept in secure envelopes and boxes and will be fed into machines at the Comelec building on election day, May 12.

“Noong nakakaraang mga panahon, apat na araw hanggang limang araw natatapos ang local absentee voting kasi nga mano-mano. Ngayon, sa gabi ng Mayo 12, matatapos po namin ang pagbilang ng lahat ng boto ng local absentee voter po natin,” said Comelec Chairman George Garcia on Monday morning.

(Before, [counting for] local absentee voting would end after four to five days because it was manual. Now, on the evening of May 12, we will be able to finish counting all votes of our local absentee voters.)

LAV voters will not be able to view their receipts since feeding into the machines will only happen on election day.

Allen Francis Abaya, head of the Comelec’s Electoral Contests Adjudication Department as well as the Committee on Local Absentee Voting, was the first to cast his vote at the Comelec main office on Monday. He said his experience was faster since it involved shading ovals instead of writing names.

Abaya also maintained the security of LAV votes amid possible concerns that the uncounted ballots will be stored in envelopes and boxes before May 12.

“Open ang mga counting….. at puwede silang magpadala ng watchers, representatives, para makita, ma-observe ang ating bilangan sa May 12 (The counting is open, and voters may send watchers and representatives to observe the counting on May 12),” he said. – Rappler.com