Some PWDs, elderly refuse to use emergency accessible polling place in Manila

Some persons with disability (PWDs) and senior citizens at a voting center in Tondo, Manila refused to use the emergency accessible polling precinct (EAPP) on Monday.

This is because they preferred to be the ones to personally feed their ballots into vote counting machines (VCMs) and check their voting receipts, according to a report by GMA News reporter Mariz Umali.

One PWD using crutches, for instance, chose to use the stairs to reach the third floor of the Gregorio Perfecto High School to be able to personally feed his ballot into the VCM.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution 10761 states that EAPPs will be established in voting centers and select places for PWDs, senior citizens, and heavily-pregnant voters.

The EAPP refers to a room or makeshift/temporary polling place established in the first floor or at the ground floor of a voting center or outside of it but in close proximity thereto, where a PWD, senior citizen and heavily pregnant voter may vote on Election Day.

Such voters however, need to sign a waiver which says they are allowing the electoral board to bring their filled out ballot from the ground floor where the EAPP is to a polling precinct upstairs at 5 p.m. The ballot will then be fed by the electoral board into the VCM at 7 p.m. after voting hours officially end.

Some PWDs, senior citizens, and heavily pregnant women however, chose to sign the waiver and cast their votes at the EAPP at the ground floor of Gregorio Perfecto High School, not minding the long queue.

One voter for instance said he was there at 5 a.m. but at 7:20 a.m. was still in line at the EAPP to vote. —KG, GMA News