Computerized voting easy, like placing bets in video machines

Maguindanao--Voters in Maguindanao, the province with the fourth largest number of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), described the automated process in the regional elections as something as easy as placing a bet in video machines, an illegal but popular form of gambling.

Senator Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate committee on electoral reform who blocked the move of Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to postpone the ARMM polls, visited precincts here and said it was interesting to see how voters were enthusiastic about the touch-screen voting.

Gordon, on the other hand, said: "What I saw was not just encouraging. There was enthusiasm among the voters in the automation of the ARMM elections. Voting was fast."

He said that "with DRE, the entire process is fast and the results come out fast, too. So the losers will feel less pain as they await the results. Kaunting aray na lang (Only a slight pain for the losers)."

The senator, however, reserved his comments on the OMR technology used in the other ARMM provinces it requires ballots to still change hands before finally dropped in boxes. He feared that this transfer of ballots could allow for "intervention" from candidates’ camps.

Computerized voting easy, like placing bets in video machines – Maguindanao voters
By Nash B. Maulana
ABS-CBN News Online
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=127975