Gordon proposes "early voting" to drive up voter turnout in 2010

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon is pushing for amendments to the Omnibus Election Code that would make "early voting" possible to encourage more people to vote in the coming May 2010 national and local elections.

Gordon made the proposal at the opening of the three-day Election Technology Conference and Vendor Exhibition 2008 sponsored by International Foundation for Election System (IFES) held in Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City.

"We can have less (automation) machines but we can have early voting instead in certain areas, like ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao). We can have early voting in remote areas prior to the main elections in 2010," he said.

"As we approach 2010, I think it is important that we, in this conference, try to look at the solutions and put our heads together," he told the delegates, which included, among others, election officials.

"Early voting," which refers to any system where voters can cast their ballot, either by mail or in person, ahead of the official elections day, is a fast growing trend in more than 30 states in the US.

Gordon explained that his proposal seeks to encourage active participation among overseas Filipino workers, businessmen who may have scheduled trips abroad, people who may be working on election day, and people who live in remote places to vote before the official election day in May 2010.

"This (early-voting) is not exactly an undiscovered science. After all, Americans showed it very, very stoutly in the last elections. One good thing in the last (US) elections is in the discovery of people that their votes will count and that's why there was a huge turn-out," he added.

In the last U.S. presidential election, early voting reportedly accounted for about one-third (or more than 30 percent) of the votes cast in the presidential race, compared with 14 percent in 2000.

High numbers of early voters appear in American states with a high percentage of rural population and in those that are geographically large. Individual voters who face long commutes or who live in rural areas are more likely to cast their ballot earlier than holding them until election day.

As chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws, Gordon is introducing amendatory measures in the Omnibus Election Code that would pave the way for early-voting scheme in the coming national and local elections.