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Ballots to be counted manually
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Posted on Nov 03 2008
Ballots cast for the Commonwealth’s first-ever federal election will be hand-counted due to lack of funding.
This is the first time since 1999 the Commonwealth Election Commission will count ballots manually. The Election Commission bought two counting machines in 2001 and has used it ever since. However, the equipment will sit idle this election, as the commission could not afford to order ballots that are compatible with the machines.
The ballots cost approximately $16,000, according to acting CEC executive director Julita Villagomez.
Earlier this year, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial signed a bill reprogramming $60,000 from the fiscal year 2008 budget of the Washington Representative’s Office to fund the election. But Jermae R. Cabrera, administrative specialist and data analyst at CEC, said the commission “never got the money.”
“We’re only able to advance a portion of our budget for the new fiscal year, but we did not get the money that was supposed to be reprogrammed for this election. So the commissioners decided to do a manual count of the ballots,” said Cabrera.
The polls will be open from 7am to 7pm today. However, the ballots will not be processed until 12 midnight. The counting will be held at the Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.
Cabrera expressed hope that the tabulation and counting of the ballots will not take long, since the election is only for one position and there are only 13,000 registered voters.
