VRVM VERIFICATION. Iloilo City Elections Officer Atty. Mavil M. Sia explains there are available options to make sure that a registered voter can cast votes even if not recognized by the Voters Registration Verification Machine (VRVM). Iloilo City is one of the areas in Western Visayas identified as pilot site for the VRVM. (File photo)
ILOILO CITY -- An official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in this highly urbanized city on Friday advised voters on what to do, in case their fingerprint will not be recognized by the voters registration verification machine (VRVM) during Monday’s mid-term elections.
Iloilo City and Iloilo province, Bacolod City and Negros Occidental are the four areas in Western Visayas identified by the Comelec as pilot sites for the VRVM.
Iloilo City elections officer, lawyer Mavil M. Sia, said in an interview that if the VRVM fails, they can resort to manual verification to be done by the poll clerk.
In case the second option does not work, then the voter will be asked to produce an identification card for the name to be checked with the Election Day Computerized Voters List.
“If the name is still not on the list, then probably the voter does not belong to that particular clustered precinct or he/she is not a registered voter,” Sia said.
The voter will be advised to proceed to the Department of Education (DepEd) supervising officer (DESO) of the day because probably the name is listed in other clustered precinct.
If the name could not be located amid all the efforts, then probably the voter had been deactivated. “They are deactivated voters for failure to vote twice,” she said.
Meanwhile, to assist voters, the Comelec has requested the DepEd to put up a layout at the entrance of the polling center, where voters can locate their established precinct.
Hence, it is important that during election day, they know their precinct number, Sia said.
After locating their clustered precinct, voters are advised to proceed to their holding room where a Comelec support staff will guide them to queue at the VRVM machine for verification.
Once verified, the machine will print a verification receipt that will be presented to the chairman for claiming of the official ballot. Without the verification receipt, the chairman could not issue the official ballot, Sia noted.
“We remind voters to fully shade the oval in their ballots. Also I would like to remind them that they should also examine their ballot to avoid issues that the ballots are already pre-shaded,” she added.
After casting of votes, the voter will feed the ballot the VCM. The third member of the electoral board would be present to assist.
The voter will wait for the voter’s receipt (VR) to come out of the machine. In the meantime, the voter’s finger will be marked with an indelible ink to signify that the person has already voted.
Upon holding of the VR, the voter has to review if indeed the machine has counted the name of candidates that were shaded in the ballot. After verifying if it’s accurate, the receipt will be dropped to the receptacle bin and the voter can now leave the precinct.
Sia said that aside from names that could not be located, voters should also be on the lookout for the VCM.
“The VCM is a machine. Just like any machine, once it is overused and things like that, there is a possibility that it will overheat. But we have enough contingency. We have also appointed technical support staff to look into that matter,” she assured.
Iloilo City has 294,776 registered voters who will troop to 388 clustered precincts. (PNA)
