Fewer crowds seen at polling sites

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had a silver lining in last Tuesday’s election, according to various precinct poll supervisors, with pandemic regulations in place resulting in smoother and less crowded voting sites.

According to Judith Castro, poll supervisor at Precinct 4B, this year’s election was the smoothest she’s ever witnessed in her years of working as a poll staff.

“There were no real big problems I’ve seen that [would’ve] hampered [the] voting process,” she said.

Castro believes that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the smoothness of this year’s election since it was because of COVID-19 that the Legislature passed a bill extending the early voting by 21 days.

“I think COVID kind of helped out. Everyone was [given] 21 days for early voting so it gave people ample time to decide whether they wanted to vote early. When I first [started], we had long lines, people waiting, and it was a long wait to get in. Now, I guess with the early voting, it really [reduced] that problem. Early voting seems to be doing good. I don’t know about next election if they’re going to do that again but, because of the pandemic, people were not rushed [this year],” she said.

The Commonwealth Election Commission also implemented curbside voting this year, which also contributed to the smooth voting system.

As of 1pm Tuesday, Precinct 4B saw 142 voters.

Poll supervisor for Precinct 3B-2 Kodep Ogumoro-Uludong said they too experienced a very smooth voting process.

“I have to give a lot of credit to Sen. Sixto Igisomar and the Legislature for passing the early voting bill to allow the extra 21 days. I think that allowed for a much smoother process for everybody,” Ogumoro-Uludong said.

Originally, early voting lasted only seven days.

Ogumoro-Uludong said the CEC also hired more staff for the screening process, which he believes contributed to the smoothness since there were more people working the polls.

“We faced no problems. Credit to the CEC [because] it feels like we had a few more folks but I think that’s partly because of the screening and the contact tracing so, for the most part, it’s been very smooth,” he said.

As of 12pm Tuesday, Precinct 3B-2 had 80 voters.

Precinct 4A poll supervisor Julie Repeki said people didn’t come in all at once. They gradually came in, so it wasn’t an overwhelming process.

“It’s not as busy. …I kind of like what’s going on, it’s not rushed. It gives people time to come in. They don’t have to wait in line. We don’t have long lines,” she said.

Precinct 4A saw 79 voters as of 1pm Tuesday. (Kimberly A. Bautista)