#ASKGOYO
Atty. Gregorio Larrazabal
Under the law, “every barangay shall have at least one precinct. Each precinct, shall have no more than two 200 voters and shall comprise contiguous and compact territories.” This means there’s a limit to the number of voters per precinct. However, if there are more than 200 registered voters in the particular area, the creation of daughter precinct/s is done, which is attached to the mother precinct.
During elections, what COMELEC does is to group several precincts together and make it into a single clustered precinct. For barangay elections, it’s usually 2-3 precincts grouped together, while in automated elections, more established precincts are grouped together to form one clustered precinct, with a dedicated counting machine. You can group more established precincts together for an automated elections, because the Electoral Board (previously called the Board of Election Inspectors – BEI) no longer count the ballots, unlike in manual elections.
Thus, in automated elections, you have clustered precincts that will have up to 1,000 voters in urban centers. In densely populated areas, even in the provinces, there will be clustered precincts with usually 600–900 voters per machine. However, in many far-flung barangays, there will be some counting machines with precincts having only 100–300 voters. Thus, if you look at the data in previous elections, you have results that usually come in first from precincts with fewer voters. Because in many precincts with more voters, voting still continues, because there are still people in line, waiting to vote.
For the 2022 elections, many have expressed apprehension on what to do with clustered precincts with 800–1,000 voters. These clustered precincts are in the voting centers in densely populated areas, especially in the cities of Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Iloilo City, Davao City and other urban centers. Considering the additional protocols in place for the health and safety of the poll workers and voters, it could take more time to process voters.
A viable option is to de-cluster precincts. What does this mean? It simply lessens the number of voters per clustered precincts and counting machine. So, instead of a clustered precinct having between 800–900 voters, there will now be a limit of a maximum of 500 voters per clustered precinct. This will help decongest the lines per machine.
Imagine voting to be like a funnel. There’s congestion because the bottom of the funnel is small. It will take more time to process voters, people to vote and feed the ballots into the machine. Now, imagine if you make the bottom of the funnel bigger. It will allow more to pass through the process faster. If less people are voting per clustered precinct and machine, it will generally take less hours for everyone to vote. There is a constant though. The time for a person to go through the process of voting. That will not change. But if there are less people who will vote per machine, it will take less time for everyone to vote.
De-clustering will not really affect many polling precincts in the countryside, where there’s generally less number of voters per machine. This will focus mainly on decongesting in urban areas.
But there’s a caveat to this idea. By de-clustering, it will affect the layout in the voting centers. There’s more clustered precincts, and you may not vote in the same classroom you voted in 2019 (voting centers are usually public elementary schools in the barangay). This is where an education campaign should be very helpful. Informing the voters of their new clustered precinct, which I must add, will still be in the same voting center. Just not the same room as before. Aside from the voter information sheet which all voters are supposed to receive, that contains their clustered precinct information, accredited citizen’s arm organizations of COMELEC will be instrumental in disseminating this information.
You’ll also need to hire more people to serve as Electoral Board. You’ll likewise also need more counting machines. These things, and other logistical matters, must be looked at as soon as possible. To better prepare for the May 9, 2022 Presidential elections.
For questions, you can contact me at https://twitter.com/GoyYLarrazabal
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