Lines mark election in school with vote counting machines
Thousands of residents voted at Pasong Tamo Elementary School, one of the schools in Quezon City where the pilot testing of the automated Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections were held Monday.
In total, there are 66,000 voters and 77 clustered precincts in Pasong Tamo.
The ground floor was the Accessible Polling Place (APP) where senior citizens, pregnant women and persons with disability (PWDs) can cast their vote, while the second to fourth floors are for regular voters.
Elderly voters have complained about the long line and the slowness of the progress at the APP so some were led upstairs with assistance to speed up their voting process.
Teodoro Ablang, Jr. 78, described the voting process at the APP as "chaotic"
"I left the queue, I informed them (electoral board) I would go, then I went to my precinct. Since I am a senior citizen, I was prioritized. I was able to vote immediately. But they (senior citizens) are still waiting in line," Ablang told The Daily Manila Shimbun.
Rizalina Gertiza, 61, said she had to leave the line for seniors and head to the second floor by herself even though her knees were hurting so she could vote.
"I waited in the priority area longer that's why it's better to vote in your own precinct. What's good is that since it's automated, the voting is faster. You don't have to shade a lot," said Gertiza, who has stage 4 breast cancer.
"In the priority area, it took a long time because there are plenty of us," she added.
" I finally saw the process, finally, how it's inserted in the machine. They cut something that looks like a receipt...I checked it carefully if to see if the candidates I voted for were there and it was correct," she said.
"I said bless these candidates, I hope they win," she added.
"The last time I voted in the national and presidential elections, I just depended on the person assisting, because I had difficulty voting since I am a cancer patient. Today, I didn't experience that.
According to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) , the school has 72 vote counting machines (VCMs), and has 144 back up units. Two polling precincts experienced temporary power outage which made two VCMs stop working for awhile.
Judge Feliciano Belmonte Senior High School and CBE Town Covered Court are the two other areas where automated polls will take place in Quezon City. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
