APPEAL. (From left to right) Comelec Regional Director Dennis Ausan, Diocesan Electoral Board convenor Msgr. Julius Heruela, and Comelec Commissioner George Erwin Garcia attend a peace covenant signing in Negros Oriental on Monday (April 25, 2022). Garcia appealed for public understanding of the glitches encountered by some users of Comelec’s recently activated online precinct finder. (Photo by Judy Flores Partlow)
DUMAGUETE CITY – An official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday appealed for understanding from the electorate on the poll body’s recently activated online precinct finder for registered voters which showed glitches for some users.
Commissioner George Erwin Garcia made the appeal during a peace covenant signing here prior to the final meeting of the Central Visayas Regional Joint Security Control Center (RJSCC).
“The precinct finder was just activated last Friday but due to scores of people immediately using it, certain problems were detected but it is now working,” Garcia said in mixed English and Filipino.
Many registered voters here, however, continue to report their status as being “deactivated” while using the precinct finder on the Comelec website, or being unable to access the precinct finder.
Other problems were “error” or “under maintenance” notifications when one accessed the online precinct finder.
A young male voter who asked not to be named said when he accessed the precinct finder, he found out he was registered in two places. He had it corrected at the local Comelec office immediately, he said.
Garcia noted that many are unaware that their deactivation status is based on their failure to vote on two consecutive elections, citing as an example the 2018 and 2019 electoral exercises.
“There is a Supreme Court decision that the 2018 barangay election is a regular election, for purposes of computing the two consecutive elections on whether a voter is deactivated or not,” he said.
Garcia said if in any event a registered voter cannot access the online precinct finder, there is always the voter’s information sheet (VIS) that the Comelec will distribute to 67.4 million registered voters.
The Comelec ordered barangay officials and not local chief executives to distribute these VISs, he noted.
Garcia said the VIS contains personal information of a voter, an assigned polling precinct, the dos and don’ts of voting, and the list of national and local candidates.
Meanwhile, Msgr. Julius Perpetuo S. Heruela, lead convenor of the Diocesan Electoral Board (DEB) of the Diocese of Dumaguete, said voter’s assistance desks will be put up during Sunday masses at the different parishes to aid the people in helping them locate their polling precincts if they cannot access the online precinct finder.
Garcia also said the Comelec will also provide the DEB, duly recognized as an umbrella of the citizen’s arm groups, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and the National Movement for Free Elections, with hard copies of the official list of registered voters in the province. (PNA)
