Poor signal during mock elections in Bohol

The only problem the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) offices encountered during the mock elections held on Saturday, Jan. 9, was poor signal on the transmission of vote results.

In Bohol province, mock elections were held in two barangays each in Cortes and Alburquerque towns.

The provincial Comelec office said the vote-counting machines (VCMs) that the votes in the mock canvassing had been 100 percent transmitted shortly after 4:05 p.m. Saturday. 

The mock elections aimed to have all votes accounted for in the 2019 midterm elections.  It was also to test the automated voting machines, transmittal of votes and results to the canvassers in the head office, as well as its new Voter Registration Verification System.

Some election officers in Bohol during the mock elections
 held in  Alburquerque town, Bohol, on Saturday, Jan. 19,  

to test the integrity of the vote counting machines (VCM). 

On Saturday, votes from the clustered precints had to be transmitted to three servers: the Comelec Central Server, the Transparency Server, and the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).

The Comelec Central Server and the Transparency Server receive the transmitted votes straight from VCMs.

 

The NBOC, which will declare the final results, gets the votes through a careful step-by-step process.

In this process, the votes from polling precincts have to be transmitted to the municipal board of canvassers (MBOC) then to the provincial board of canvassers (PBOC), before being beamed to the NBOC.

During the mock canvassing on Saturday, the transmission to the Comelec Central Server and the Transparency Server finished an hour earlier than the transmission to the NBOC.

Environmental lawyer and triathlete Ingemar Macarine,
 also known as the “Pinoy Aquaman”, with Ric Obedencio
 (of The Freeman/Philippine Star, extreme right) ,
Allen Doydora (of DYRD, extreme left, ) and your
VRS during the mock elections on Saturday, Jan. 19.
Macarine is the election officer of Tubigon.

There were two precints  each for Cortes and Alburquerque towns which catered 100 voters per precint.

In Barangay Dangay in Alburquerque town, there were four precints in cluster at Dangay Elem. School with 87 voters.

The transmissions from Dangay Elem. School did the Comelec Central Serve and the Transparency Server, but it failed to reach the municipal Municipal board of canvassers. But it was later solved by an IT from the Comelec.

Christopher Peralta, election officer 2 of Alburquerque Comelec office, said that there was no problem during the casting of votes.

 He said the only problem was poor signal.

 “Number 1 la siguro  sa problema nato karun is yung pag-receive ng  mga result galing ng cluster precints. Naka-pagtrasmit na sila pero sa MBOC is hindi natin matanggap,” he said.

But in 2016 elections, he said Barangay Dangay had 100% successful transmission of vote results.

Peralta said that the mock elections was an opportunity for the Comelec in Bohol to find ways to address this particular problem should this happen during this year’s elections.

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