Jammed, rejected ballots, missing names in Panabo precincts

TRY & TRY. A voter in Panabo City attempts to feed the ballot to the PCOS machine five times, to no avail. (davaotoday.com photo by Mart D. Sambalud)

“Natingala ko nganong wala among pangalan sa listahan nga naa man unta amoang Comelec voter’s ID.  Unta gi check na nila.” – Marivic Escudero, a voter

By MART D. SAMBALUD
Davao Today

PANABO CITY, Davao del Norte, Philippines — Voters from San Francisco village, this city said their names were not in the voters list as posted outside the polling precincts in Panabo City Elementary School.

As of 2:30 PM Monday, voters trooped to the Voter’s Assistance Desk to check their names and polling precinct number.  However, they were surprised that their names were nowhere to be found in the computerized voter’s list from Panabo City Comelec Office.

Marivic Escudero, a voter from Purok Caymeto, complained that her name and seven others from her family were not on the voter’s list.

“Natingala ko nganong wala among pangalan sa listahan nga naa man unta amoang Comelec voter’s ID.  Unta gi check na nila,” Escudero told davaotoday.com.

She added that 20 voters from their village also did not find their names and returned home disappointed.

Election Supervisor Brenda Irug-irug of Panabo City Central Elementary School told davatoday.com that “wala gyud kami mahimo ana kay kung unsa ang gihatag na listahan  sa Comelec  mao ra pud amo ginasunod.”

She added though, “unta ang usa ka pamilya pareho lang og presinto, dili kay lahi-lahi matag usa ka miyembro sa pamilya.  Pareha karun, ang uban wala sa listahan.”

Board of Election Inspector Chairman Margaret Laurel confirmed that voters in their cluster could not cast their votes because their names were not listed.  She added the Comelec-Panabo City instructed them to reject voters whose names were not enlisted in the EDCVL.

In Rizal Elementary School, voters have reported of paper jams in some of the clustered precincts.

In Cluster precinct 81, five ballots jammed after these were fed to the by the PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machine.  In Panabo City National High School’s Cluster 6, two ballots jammed while in Salvacion High School’s Cluster 103, a ballot also jammed.

Rodrigo Pangantihon, a PCOS Technical support staff, said this was due to some deformities of the ballots.  He added “(B)allots should not be crumpled and must be inserted properly to the PCOS.”  (Mart D. Sambalud/davaotoday.com)