TAPAT poll system put to test

The mock elections featuring the Transparent (TAPAT) election system yesterday earned mixed reactions from those who tried it.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo praised the system not only for making voting easier for voters, but also for promoting transparency through its voter verification receipt.

“It’s easy to vote because you just need to shade. You also don’t need to memorize the names of the candidates because its by numbers so people don’t vote for a candidate anymore merely be- cause of name recall,” he said in an interview after casting his vote at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) in Intramuros, where the mock polls was held.

“The system is also transparent because the voter is given a receipt after so you’ll see if your vote was counted or not. In case there is a problem later, you have the receipt which can be used for recount,” added Pabillo, who is also the chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ (CBCP’S) Public Affairs Committee.

He said he is hoping that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be open to other systems for the May, 2016 polls and not focus only on the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines of Smartmatic-TIM.

Comelec officials who also tried the system, on the other hand, have several questions.

Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez asked the people who served as (Board of Election Inspectors) BEI during the mock polls as to what will happen to his votes that were not counted.

“I voted for all positions but it was not read except only for some because it was not fully shaded,” he said.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista also had questions of his own.

While feeding his sample ballot to the equipment, the poll chief noted how the voter verification receipt makes the system vulnerable to vote-buying and vote-selling activities.

“This can be the best way to collect money if you want to sell your vote,” Bautista said.