Comelec calls on overseas Filipinos to join internet voting test

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) called on overseas Filipino voters on Monday, February 8, to join its test for internet voting, as the poll body explores its potential for future elections.

The Comelec said test voters can sign up until 8 am (Manila time) on Friday, February 12. The link to the sign-up form can be found here.

Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez clarified to Rappler on Monday, however, that this not specifically for the 2022 elections.

“The dry run is being undertaken under the Comelec’s’s mandate to study new forms of voting, to facilitate the exercise of the right of suffrage by overseas voters. The results of the dry run will be eventually presented to Congress, for Congress to decide if it should be adopted for overseas voting,” Jimenez said.

“As you can imagine, that is a long process and so, 2022 is an unrealistic target,” he added.

The Comelec said that to qualify for the internet voting test, an overseas voter should have an “active and complete voter registration record.”

This means the voter’s registration should not have been deactivated for failing to vote in two previous elections. This also means the voter should “have complete biometrics data, including photograph, fingerprints, and signature.”

Participants, said the Comelec, should have “a smartphone capable of running Android or iOS apps, a laptop or personal computer, or any mobile device with internet or data access.”

“In compliance with our data privacy policy, interested participants will be required to email us their signed consent form, together with a copy of their passport or seafarer’s book. We advise that they only send these documents to our official email address at overseasvoting@comelec.gov.ph,” said Sonia Bea Wee Lozada, director of the Comelec Office for Overseas Voting. – Rappler.com