OCTOBER 25, 2009

PLEASE CONTACT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Niel Lim
yvotephilippines@gmail.com
0915.741.5867

YouthVote: voter education should

familiarize voters with new process

As voter registration ends, YouthVotePhilippines, steps up its voter education

campaign with the second round of its time-and-motion study on filling up
the ballot held yesterday (October 24) at the San Isidro Central School,
Nueva Ecija.

Results of the recent study show that, on average, it may take a voter six
(6) minutes and one (1) second to fill up the proposed ballot for the
automated elections. This is an improvement from the average of the first
study conducted in Tanauan, Batangas, which recorded an average of eight
(8) minutes and four (4) seconds.

“Proper orientation on the voting process can really help a voter fill up the
ballot easier and faster,” said Ching Jorge, YouthVote lead convener. “The
result is a welcome development and we’re gearing our voter education
program to not only get people informed about the candidates but to also
familiarize them with the ballot and the new process.”

The series of study, conducted with PoliticalArena.com, uses an improvised

ballot based on the sample design of the Commission on Elections
(COMELEC). The ballot used for the second study featured substitute
questions for 32 electoral positions with 338 candidates printed on both
sides of the paper. For its second round, YouthVote shortened the ballot size
from 25 to 20 inches and adjusted the font size to Arial Narrow 11 also as
per COMELEC advice.

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In an exit interview, participants of the study generally had positive
feedback. Several teachers, elderly and experienced voters, who participated
in the study, said they were relieved that voting will still be done using paper
ballots, as they were afraid that automated elections meant computerized
voting. Previous Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) chairpersons also
expressed relief that the voting process will not be very different from past
elections. A 74-year old voter said he was thankful the youth were initiating
change. A total of 534 people of voting age participated in the study.

“People are always wary about new processes especially for events that will
impact them personally like elections. It’s important that experienced voters
have seen that it is not so much changing the old process but making it
more efficient,” said Jaime Garchitorena, YouthVote information technology
strategist. “What we need to do now, especially COMELEC and other groups
with voter education programs, is to enlighten the public on which parts of
the process will be automated, which parts will be a bit different and which
parts will be similar.”

“As we improve the way we conduct elections, we think we should also

improve the way we conduct voter education. Aside from knowing more
about the candidates and developing democratic criteria, people should also
now be informed on how exactly to engage the electoral process so they
won’t feel indifferent,” added Tanya Hamada, YouthVote regional convener.

Unlike the first round, the second time-and-motion study was multi-sectoral
and included out-of-school and elderly voters. Also, participants were
oriented on the mechanics of filling up the ballot to avoid over-voting and
shading problems. “When we released the results of the first study, some
people said we got a good average time because our participants were all
students who are used to shading, like when they do it during exams,” Jorge
explained. “But with the result of the second study, it goes to show that with
proper guidance even experienced voters can easily adjust to the new
process.”

The activity was the group’s proactive response to concerns regarding

difficulties and delays that might be caused by the new process and
clustering of precincts. The COMELEC plans to collapse the existing 320,415
voting precincts into 80,146 clustered precincts in order to match the
available 82,200 counting machines, also known as PCOS (Precinct Count

Unit 1110 Prestige Tower, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center 1600 Pasig City
Telefax: (632) 634-1334 Email: yvotephilippines@gmail.com
www.youthvotephilippines.com
Optical Scan). The new set up will cluster up to 1,000 registered voters in
every precinct, which will be open for 11 hours.

“We thought it better to experiment and investigate instead of whining about

automated elections,” said Garchitorena. “I think the youth and the public in
general deserves to know the facts of this new technology and process.”

Since June 2008, YouthVote has engaged COMELEC in dialogue to

immediately resume the registration of voters to accommodate more new
registrants. They have been working with COMELEC to ensure that the youth
would be a significant voice in the 2010 elections and successfully lobbied for
a petition outlining four (4) possible areas where YouthVote could help
COMELEC address limitations of the registration process for students and
young professionals away from their areas of residence: 1)utilizing schools
for a registration/information campaign; 2)expanding the availability of
registration materials to schools and the internet; 3)setting-up satellite
registration centers or field mobile registration units; and 4)assigning
additional special registration days each first Saturday of the month.

Unit 1110 Prestige Tower, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center 1600 Pasig City
Telefax: (632) 634-1334 Email: yvotephilippines@gmail.com
www.youthvotephilippines.com