Comelec going to malls for election roadshow

The Commission on Elections (Comelec)Cebu has conducted its second Vote Counting Machine (VCM) Roadshow to give the public a glimpse of how it is going to be like on election day.

The roadshow allowed participants to practice shading and feeding their ballots to the VCM.

A voters education talk was also conducted.

"It is important that the voter should not make any erasure," said Omar Sharif D. Mamalinta, Election Assistant II.

Other important reminders that voters should take note of is to make sure that you will not get your ballot wet and not to write anything else on the ballot.

If this happens, the VCM will not read the ballot.

"There are security features there that we have to take into consideration," he said.

Mamalinta also reminded the public of the Comelec's policy of "One Ballot Per Voter Only."

Also, voters should not overvote, or voting for more than the prescribed number of seats or position. For example, a person voted for 13 senators instead of 12, everything else on the ballot would be counted, except for the votes for senators.

Voters may undervote, but not overvote.

Voters may also leave blanks.

"Another thing is the VPAT, the Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. This is generated by the VCM to verify the votes that you have casted, should the voter see a discrepancy on his or her votes, as reflected in the VPAT, all they have to do is approach the electoral board, and that will be noted in the counting of votes," he added.

Mamalinta also said that if a voter does not want to vote because he or she does not want to vote for any of the candidates, he or she may feed his or her ballots to the VCM so their voter's registration would still be recognized as active.

He added that Cebu City is one of the pilot areas for the VRVS machine, or the Voters Registration Verification System machine. It is a tablet where the data of the voters are stored.

He said that once a person enters the assigned precinct, using the right thumb, the system will verify if you are in your designated precinct, after which, you will be given your ballot.

There will be another roadshow in the Activity Center of the Ayala Center Cebu, on February 18 and 19, 2019, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

"The importance of having these VCM roadshows is that we would be able to impart to the general public, especially to the voters, the voter's education that we are conducting," said Mamalinta.

He also added that these roadshows will help make the elections organized and orderly.