The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has registered a slightly higher voter turnout in its second internet voting test run conducted by the technology provider Smartmatic over the weekend.
Comelec’s Office of Overseas Voting (OFOV) Director Sonia Bea Wee-Lozada on Monday said the second online voting test run bested the initial activity that drew 348 participants.
She said out of the 669 test voters, 426 or 63.67 percent have participated in the second activity held from 8 a.m. of September 18 until 8 a.m. of September 20.
“Compared to last week’s internet voting activity we experienced a slightly higher voter turnout this time,” Lozada said. “This is a turnout of over 63 percent of test voters for this round.”
The test participants voted from 63 countries, including the majority of 77 who were here in the country, followed by 40 from the United States; 20 in Australia; and 19 in the United Arab Emirates.
She said majority of those who voted are women.
“Out of the 426, 246 of them are women, and 180 men. So higher voter turnout among women,” Lozada said.
For the second test run activity, Smartmatic used Trust Innovation Verifiability Integrity (TIVI).
The initial test run for internet voting was conducted from September 11 to 13 by Voatz, a US-based tech company.
Under the Overseas Voting Act of 2003, Comelec is authorized to explore internet-based technologies for overseas voting.
The third and last round of the activity will be conducted by Indra Sistemas this weekend.
Source: Philippines News Agency
