Final testing, sealing off VCMs, set May 6

TAGBILARAN CITY, May 4, (PIA) –People who may still have issues with the machines and the automated election proceedings can go and check for themselves by observing the final testing and sealing of the Vote Counting Machines (VCM) set May 6.

The testing and sealing will happen at registered precincts all over Bohol beginning at 9:00 AM onwards. 

Bohol Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Supervisor for the Elections in 2016, Atty. Jerome Brilliantes said the Final Testing and Sealing of VCMs initially take the form of the mock elections.

This is to test the accuracy, efficiency and usability of the VCM using 10 sample ballots, he said. 

And once proven that there is no problem with the VCMs, the members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) would start sealing the equipment to prevent anyone from tampering the machines and produce a fake result, come election day. 

At the final testing and sealing, members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) would conduct the mock polls like it is the real one, Bril;liantes said. 

The Bohol poll supervisor also saidBEIs would instruct on the proceedings and secure the ballots after the print-out and checking of the voter if the printed receipts coincide with the ones chosen earlier. 

On this, COMELEC still urges everyone to come to the precinct with enough information to be able to pick from the slates fast, and make the average mark of a minute for each voter as time slot allotted for the voter. 

If all else coincides, then the BEI seals the VCM, ready for the election two days later. 

Brilliantes said the COMELEC has already sent all the ballot boxes and the VCMs to the office of the Municipal Treasurers in Bohol last week. 

From there, the VCMs would be either delivered earlier to far flung barangays and island voting precincts, according to early delivery requests or the normal delivery which would happen shortly before the election voting opens, he explained. 

As to the delivery of the VCMs and the ballot boxes, the COMELEC has assigned the task to a private cargo forwarder, who will handle the delivery of the election paraphernalia and equipment from their stocking hub to the voting precincts.

This may be carried on a privately owned vehicle, but the delivery on the election day would be through government vehicles, the lawyer at the COMELEC said. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)