Gordon: No need to go back to manual elections

CALASIAO, Pangasinan — Senator Richard Gordon still preferred the conduct of automated election despite the clamor of some groups to go back to manual balloting, following the alleged fraud in the 2016 national election.

“I think we should stick with the automated elections, we cannot go back again and again to the former (manual elections),” said Gordon, author of the Amended Automated Elections System Law, in an interview during his visit to flood-affected residents in Barangay Songkoy here on Thursday.

“I want the people to not write anymore during elections. They would just press buttons in a screen monitor, where the pictures of candidates are seen and they will just be asked for verification if the pictures of the candidates the screen display are the candidates they voted. Afterwards, a paper containing the names of the candidates they voted will be given to them, which they could bring home,” he added.

Gordon said he will ask the Commission on Elections if it is possible to replace the existing automated machines with machines that have screen monitors.

“The machine could also be used as a television by school children after the conduct of elections since we only use software to make it work,” he said.

He added: “Let us fix it (automated election) and not destroy it.” Hilda Austria/PNA-northboundasia.com