By Isabella T. Magno

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced on Monday, October 18, that the target date for the launch of the online precinct finder for the May 9, 2022 elections is set in early January next year. 

Comelec Information Technology director Jeannie Flororita said in the Senate Finance Panel’s deliberations on the body’s budget for 2022 that everything will be finalized only after the list of registered voters has been acquired. 

“If the database has been finalized [by] December, we can make it available by January. We need the final data so that the voters can search their [data] and polling center,” Flororita stated. 

By encoding personal information, the precinct finder determines where a voter should proceed to cast their ballot on election day.

The same tool was implemented in the 2016 national election, but there was a significant data breach in the Precinct Finder online app, which was believed to have troubled the voter and internal Comelec database.

To avoid having the same problem, the committee partnered with the technology firm Smartmatic, where Php 864.024 million was allotted for the contract signed in June 2020.

Until the online precinct finder is available online, registered Filipino voters can check their status through their local Comelec offices. 

With the risks brought by the pandemic, the election committee pursues to reduce the number of voters assigned per precinct to lower the chances of transmission through close contacts. 

In the 2022 elections, Comelec plans to utilize 110,000 vote-counting machines (VMCs), reducing the number of voters in each precinct from 1,000 in 2019 to 800 next year.

One VCM is assigned to each precinct, in which the number of precincts depends on the number of registered voters by October 30, 2021.

Voters will be assigned based on the examined polling precincts utilized in the 2019 midterm elections.

According to the new rules of Comelec, precincts may be transferred if the area is being used as a quarantine facility, congested, or the political situation is “volatile”.

Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas announced on September 30 that there are 63.7 million registered voters, where 6.1 million are first-time voters.

Meanwhile, he said that he expects about 350,000 to 500,000 more Filipinos to sign up this month of October, for a total of over 64 million possible voters on May 9, 2022. 

References:

De Leon, D. (2021, October 18). Comelec eyes January 2022 launch of online precinct finder. Rappler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/comelec-response-online-precinct-finder-likely-up-january-2022?fbclid=IwAR2FTzrjo_JTb0NWkkN1UCdJZ0P9BQ7OtYxGwICH0ACMuneLtmUIZfdyS2w 

Lopez, M. (2021, October 18). Comelec plans rollout of online precinct finder in January. CNN Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2021/10/18/Comelec-precinct-finder-January-2022.html