Voting in the time of COVID: What Comelec has been doing to ensure public safety

On December 29, 2021, the day COVID-19 cases in the country went up to almost 900 after two weeks of hovering below 500, hinting of a possible surge that OCTA Research said could be more than just "holiday uptick," the Commission on Elections (Comelec) held mock elections in preparation for May 9, 2022.

Held in 34 barangays in Metro Manila and six provinces, the exercise aims to "see bottlenecks" in the voting process, according to Director James Jimenez, the poll body's spokesperson, especially since the elections will be conducted with COVID-19 still very much a threat.

But how different would the 2022 elections be in light of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Jimenez said although voting mechanics would be the same, additional procedures would be put in place to ensure the safety of voters from the transmissible respiratory disease that has already killed over 51,000 in the country as of posting time.

"The voting process itself... remains the same. You still fill up a ballot, you still slide the ballot into the vote counting machine, and then you leave the premises," Jimenez told GMA News Online.

The added procedure, he said, is the health evaluation before a voter can enter the polling place. This includes temperature check and visual screening to see if the voter exhibits COVID-19 symptoms. “Tambay” or loitering around the precinct – very common during past elections -- would no longer be allowed.

“Ngayon [now], you go there, you vote, you leave,” Jimenez said.

Voters experiencing symptoms would not be turned away, according to Jimenez. Instead they would be directed to an isolation polling place (IPP) where they could still vote.

"The IPP stands for isolation polling place. It's the same idea [as a polling place] except that the personnel in the IPP will be fully protected against possible transmission," he explained.

There would be no similar treatment, however, for people who are tested positive for COVID-19.

"People with COVID are not in a specially privileged position compared to anyone else who is sick," Jimenez said.

"Just because may COVID ka, puwede kang bumoto [Just because you have COVID, you can vote]? Hindi [no], we have to be logical about this."

Those who pass the health screening, meanwhile, would be directed to a voter assistance desk where they would be given room assignment and informed of the sequential order on the list of voters.

Poll watchdog Kontra Daya, however, sees rejecting COVID-positive voters as a possible cause of voter disenfranchisement.

“What we find unacceptable is the situation where COVID-19-positive voters will not be allowed to vote on Election Day,” said Kontra Daya convenor and Professor Danilo Arao in a separate interview. “It might result in disenfranchisement if there will be a new surge with whatever variant there may be with regard to COVID-19.”

To avoid this, Arao suggested early voting options for those under granular lockdown and the possibility of having “roaming precincts” wherein the election officers would technically bring the voting precincts to the areas with high degree of transmission.

“Those factors should be explored by the Comelec so that we don't run the risk of disenfranchisement as a result of higher transmission,” Arao said.

Though the Comelec has vowed to pick big classrooms with open windows to ensure that polling places have “natural ventilation,” Arao suggested converting gymnasiums or wide covered spaces to polling places.

Arao also called for early voting that may be done one or two weeks before Election Day for those who will be affected by granular lockdowns.

“The reason here is very simple: Number one, we don’t know what’s going to happen between now and May [2022] so we don't know if there will be granular lockdowns in any areas,” he said.

“We need such kinds of safety precautions to ensure that granular lockdown will not get in the way of the right to vote of people.”

Under the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases guidelines dated December 14, local government units (LGUs) are mandated to identify critical zones to be placed under granular lockdowns within 14 days. 

Granular lockdowns could be implemented on a house, compound, street, or building with high cases of coronavirus infection.

According to officials, the presence of one COVID-19 case is enough to lock down a house or a condominium floor. To impose a lockdown along an entire street, there should be at least two COVID-19 cases.

Arao also warned about the possibility of some incumbent officials imposing granular lockdowns in communities that are bailiwicks of their political rival, which will decrease the votes of their opponents.

“What would happen if there is, let’s say, a scheming local official who decided to put on granular lockdown the bailiwick of the opposition, so that would mean fewer votes for his or her opponent?” Arao said. 

“We want to avoid that kind of a situation.”

The 2022 elections will also have longer voting hours, according to the Comelec, which took into consideration the social distancing requirement to avoid possible COVID-19 transmission. Polling places would open at 6 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. Jimenez said they are open to extending the voting hours but they would only accommodate those who arrived at the polling center by 5:45 p.m.

The Comelec would also be adding more vote counting machines (VCMs) to achieve the 800 voters per clustered precinct ratio to avoid overcrowding.

Precautions against COVID-19 would not only be limited to Election Day. To protect the public from transmission, the Comelec declared, via Resolution No. 10730 dated November 17, that violations of health and safety protocols during campaign sorties and rallies as election offenses punishable under the law.

The resolution covers candidates, but Jimenez said due process would be observed.

“Even if a candidate is alleged to have committed some sort of violation, the consequences are not immediate. Why? Number one, someone has to complain. Number two, the person has the opportunity to defend himself or herself,” he said.

While Kontra Daya is supportive of this, Arao urged the Comelec to “call out” aspirants who are already holding caravans and motorcades even before the campaign season.

He also called out the Philippine National Police for being “very lenient” against aspirants allegedly violating health protocols but being strict when it comes to rallies conducted by activists.

“Sometimes they even arrest activists for holding placards but right now, they are very, very lenient toward these candidates and political parties even if there are clear violations of health protocols,” said Arao.

Since in-person campaigning could be risky amid the pandemic, the Comelec expects candidates to utilize the internet for their respective campaigns, prompting it to issue guidelines for e-rallies and online campaigning.

A provision of the Comelec’s implementing rules and regulations, promulgated through Resolution 10730, tasks the poll body’s Education and Information Department to provide a platform for free livestreaming of e-rallies for presidential, vice-presidential, and senatorial candidates as well as party-list organizations.

Live streaming of e-rallies shall be conducted every night, beginning February 8, 2022, on the official social media channels of Comelec.

Campaign period for national posts -- president, vice president, senator and party-list groups -- is from February 8 to May 7, 2022, while candidates for local posts -- seat at the House of Representatives as well as regional, provincial, city and municipal officials -- may campaign from March 25 to May 7, 2022.

Despite the threat of the pandemic, both Jimenez and Arao believe there would be a higher voter turnout in 2022, citing the public’s motivation to get registered to vote.

Arao said there was enthusiasm for voter aspirants as evidenced by the long lines during the voter registration.

Based on Comelec data, CALABARZON has the highest number of registered voters for Eleksyon 2022 with 9,193,096.

FYI. pic.twitter.com/0oGEy5HRML

— James Jimenez (@jabjimenez) December 18, 2021

For the 2022 elections, the Comelec said there are 65,745,529 domestic voters as of December 14, 2021. This, Jimenez said, is the “final number” of expected voters.

On top of this, Jimenez said there are approximately 1.8 million overseas Filipinos who will participate in the upcoming polls.

Jimenez said it would be a “historic level of participation” if the estimated 67.5 million registered voters – a “record high,” he said -- would actually participate on May 9, 2022.

“That is a huge bounce. ‘Yun ang historic sa tingin ko [for me that is historic],” he said.

The Comelec is eyeing an 80% voter turnout that would match the 2016 presidential elections, which posted 81% voter turnout. Jimenez noted that elections conducted in other states amid the pandemic “showed the opposite” of low voter turnout.

The Comelec has a little over four months before the election day, and Jimenez said there is more work to be done, from printing ballots to preparing voting sites.

Regarding the readiness of voting sites, Jimenez said the Comelec is at “75% on the way done” because they still need to verify if the classrooms are still eligible as voting centers.

Overall, Jimenez said the Comelec is about 75% complete in its preparations to make sure that the next year’s polls will be an honest and free elections. –KBK, GMA News