#VoterReg resumed nationwide, except in places still under ECQ or MECQ. Oh, and also in places like Quezon City and Paranaque where the offices had to be shut down for emergency disinfection.
In NCR, the tale of the tape (so far) looks like this:
Over the last four days, the COMELEC offices in NCR processed a total of 5,028 transactions – everything from the registration of new voters to reinstatement in the list of voters, a total of 12 separate transaction categories in all.
That, my friends, is a very low number. But it isn’t entirely surprising. While the interest in registering – especially among the youth – is unmistakable, there are several factors that push the numbers down. The first, of course is that people are (rightfully so!) afraid of COVID19.
The second reason for the low numbers is the lingering suspicion among people that they won’t be allowed to go out and register. To be perfectly fair, I have yet to hear of a person arrested or even just accosted by the authorities for going out of their homes to register. Again, not surprising because the Omnibus Guidelines issued by the IATF clearly do not prohibit going out to register. Still, people are worried and I don’t blame them. No one needs the hassle of having to explain democracy at the presinto. The best I can do is to assure everybody that if they’re eligible to register, and they’re at the COMELEC office for that reason, then they will be allowed to register.
The third reason is really more about the COMELEC shooting itself in the foot. Because we’ve been encouraging people to make appointments before going to the Office, many people now think that an appointment is mandatory. And to be very honest, some of our people have been equally at fault in fostering that belief. But I think we’ve got that all settled now and, the chances are this particular problem won’t be giving us too much trouble any further. Still, with these things, its best to always be ready to course-correct. SO, for the record, prior appointments are recommended, but they are NOT mandatory.
The fourth reason for the low numbers thus far, to my mind anyway, is the unfortunate penchant of the COMELEC website to go slow and wonky under the load of thousands of people trying to download the same resources at the same time. To help address this, we’ve set up alternate download sites. There’s a download site on the COMELEC’s Facebook page, and another one in this very blog.
And the fifth reason I suspect to be behind the very low number of transactions processed thus far is that the COMELEC’s COVID-safe precautions are working to severely limit the number of people each office processes in a day. the ‘no face mask, no face shield, no entry’ alone probably still accounts for a significant number of turn-aways; as does the requirement to submit a health declaration coupled with temperature checking. Worse, I suspect many of the turn-aways can be attributed to the fact that people with no application forms are not allowed to fill out the forms at the COMELEC office and are being asked to return only when they’ve filled out the forms. It’s not the ideal situation but, all things considered, #bettercovidsafethansorry.
