In celebration of the COMELEC’s 76th Anniversary as a Constitutional Commission today, me and my staff at the COMELEC’s Education and Information Department have compiled a short list of the most common abbreviations encountered by people outside the COMELEC.
<h4>Alphabet soup</h4>
COMELEC – Well, you know this one.
EBAD – Election and Barangay Affairs Department (the Department of the COMELEC charged with overseeing elections and voter registration in general)
ERSD – Election Records and Statistics Department (the Department of the COMELEC charged with custody of election related records and the responsibility to crunch election data into usable stats)
CLAV – Committee on Local Absentee Voting
LAV – Local Absentee Voting
COAV – Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting <em><span style=”color: #ff6600;”>(which has now been replaced by the OFOV)</span></em>
OAV – Overseas Absentee Voting <span style=”color: #ff6600;”><em>(now referred to as FOV)</em></span>
OFOV – Office of Filipino Overseas Voting
FOV – Filipino Overseas Voting
CFU – Campaign Finance Unit
AES – Automated Election System
CCS – Canvassing/Consolidation System
PCOS – Precinct Count Optical Scan (used in the automation of the 2010 and 2013 National and Local Elections; usually followed by “machine”)
VCM – Vote Counting Machine (used in the automation of the 2016 National and Local Elections)
RMAC – Random Manual Audit Committee
RMA – Random Manual Audit
RMAT – Random Manual Audit Team
BOC – Board of Canvassers; can be C/MBOC (City/Municipal), PBOC (Provincial), or NBOC (National)
BEI – Board of Election Inspectors
COC – Certificate of Canvass
SOV – Statement of Votes
CVL – Computerized Voters List; can be PCVL [Posted], or EDCVL [Election Day]
CAC – COMELEC Advisory Council
TEC – Technical Evaluation Committee
JCOC – Joint Congressional Oversight Committee
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below. 🙂