By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
Voters welcomed the pilot implementation of Automated Election System (AES) in select polling precincts for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) on Monday, Oct. 30.
Among the selected pilot sites were in Quezon City and Cavite.
“Kasi pagpasok pa lang, may nag-assist samin tapos maluwag tapos yung teacher accommodating naman. Pagpasok ko sa makina nung ano ko, lumabas agad yung ano kasi tama yung ginawa ko,” said voter Maria Luz Regalado.
Barangay Pasong Tamo in the 6th District of Quezon City is one of the three locations chosen for the pilot testing designated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for an AES.
Also included were Barangay Zone II Poblacion and Barangay Paliparan III in Dasmariñas City, Cavite.
In an earlier statement, Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said that the choice of participating barangays was part of the regular en banc meeting held on Feb. 15.
“The decision was reached upon mutual consultation and mutual agreement between the House and the Comelec,” Laudiangco said.
In a post-election press briefing on Tuesday, Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia said automated elections should be considered as he noted the challenges on manual vote counting.
“Kung ipapasok na lang sa machine tapos pipindot lang, in just a matter of one hour may proclamation ka… Kapag mabilis, walang violence,” he said.
“Alam niyo po, walang problem, at the same time mas mabilis, mas accurate yung results,” he added.– With reports from Joshua Garcia-ag