LUCENA CITY – Commission on Election (COMELEC) chairman George Erwin Garcia guided the residents here to cast their votes in a demonstration for the new Automated Voting Machine, held at the Event Center of SM City Lucena on Saturday, Aug. 17.

Garcia led the COMELEC team during the event, elaborating on the features of the machine to be used for 2025 mid-term elections.

He said the new machine will make voting more convenient and hassle-free for all voters with its modern features including a smooth receptacle for the ballot, wide touch screen monitor for easy review of the votes cast, fool-proof receptacle for the receipt after the voter confirmed his votes.

In the past elections, the ballot receipt is just placed in a yellow box beside the old vote counting machine.

“We immediately addressed the voters’ doubt whether their vote is counted, because we received complains in the past airing they are not sure if their vote is counted because their receipt is just placed in the yellow box,” Garcia told the audience.

Garcia also updated the audience about the innovations at Comelec to be implemented in the 2025 elections, which include: privilege for the senior citizens, persons with disability (PWD) and pregnant women to cast their votes starting at 5 A.M. until 7 p.m.

Garcia announced the  COMELEC is in preparation for nnline voting via Internet for Filipinos abroad, meaning they don’t have to go to Philippine embassies in their respective countries; and  mall voting at for the barangays in the immediate vicinities of the concerned mall.

The talked between COMELEC and malls administrators in the various parts of tge country are in the process come up with an agreement.

Garcia also encouraged the deactivated voters to renew their registration to practice their electoral rights.

“Our records show that 5.2 million Fillipinos were deactivated because they failed to vote during the 2022 elections and the Barangay and SK elections last year,” Garcia added.

He also appealed to young voters to participate in the 2025 elections to make their voices heard.

He added the youth comprises 25 million voters. They have yet to reach their agency’s target 60 to 70 million voters for the next election.

Presently, they only recorded 52 million registered voters and Garcia assured there won’t be an extension for registration, set until September 30.

The event, first in Quezon, is attended by elections officers of almost all the 41 towns and cities of the province, public administration students, senior citizens and PWD sectoral members.

COMELEC commissioner George Erwin Garcia explains the feature of new automated voting machine during the conduct of demonstration at SM event Center in Lucena City. ( Danny Estacio)