Early voting and longer voting hours for 2010

Comelec chairman Jose Melo said on Monday they would ask Congress to lengthen voting hours and allow early voting for 2010 so that the Comelec could maximize the election machines they would use for the computerized national elections.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the joint committee on the automation of the elections, said he would support both proposals and said he would file the bills in the Senate.

In his speech at the conference on Monday, Gordon said he was backing the proposal to have voters in remote areas vote using the election machines a month before those in urban centers.

This way, he said, the machines could still be transported to other areas and be used by other voters.

“The machines are expensive. I can only buy 10,000 machines so I'll do early voting so that at a certain point, I can pull out the machines,” Gordon said.

Longer voting hours eyed for 2010
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20081117-172755/Longer-voting-hours-eyed-for-2010
By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:49:00 11/17/2008