An early voting law to reduce election mass gatherings

WE already have the Local Absentee Voting Act which al­lows certain mediamen, police, and teachers to cast their votes early so they carry on with their duties on Election Day. Com­mission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon has now proposed that certain other sectors – People with Dis­abilities (PWD), the elderly, preg­nant women, indigenous people, those who detained in jail – also be allowed to cast their votes in advance in May, 2022.

Her reason: This will help re­duce the danger of mass gather­ings in voting sites on Election Day. These additional sectors pro­posed by Commissioner Guan­zon are also among those most vulnerable to infection by the COVID-19 virus.

The government hopes to in­oculate 50 to 70 million of our 110-million population by the end of this year, but that hope depends on the availability of sufficient vaccine doses. With the entire world seeking to inoculate over 6 billion people, there may not be enough doses available for months to achieve the “herd im­munity” that will put a stop to the virus’ spread around the world.

We have to presume that the pandemic will still be around for years, especially in the poorer countries. COVID-19 has shown that it manages to overcome the strictest restrictions. As long as it thrives in any country, the whole world is in danger.

We must, therefore, presume that COVID-19 will continue to pose a danger to the country when the presidential election of May, 2022, comes around. On that day our voters will elect a president and vice president, 12 senators, 247 district and 61 party-list congressmen, 81 gov­ernors and 81 vice governors, 780 board members, 1,634 mayors and a similar number of vice mayors, and 13,546 city and town councilors.

It will take time to fill up all the blanks for the positions on the ballot, so that many poll precincts have been forced to remain open until well after the scheduled closing time. Voters will be together in the confines of the precinct. This we must avoid in this time of the pandemic.

The Comelec is now consider­ing measures that will minimize the danger of spreading the virus, including the addition of voting precincts and of voting machines. There is also a move to allow mail voting as in the United States, but Commissioner Guanzon has reservations about this proposal. Filipinos are “too enterprising,” she said and the Philippine Post Office may not be able to counter the more enterprising ones.

But allowing more people to vote early will help, Commis­sioner Guanzon said. This will allow about one-fourth of the expected 61 million voters to vote separately and thus cut down the masses of voters gathering in the precincts on election day.

It is an idea worth considering by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases and by Congress which will need to approve a Local Absentee Early Voting Law, listing all the sectors that will be allowed to cast their votes days before Election Day. It will serve to lessen the danger of causing a spike in the nation’s COVID-19 cases.