EDITORIAL - Two welcome measures

There are two bills now pending before the House that, if enacted and become law, will go a long way in easing up and speeding the process of voting in elections as part of much-needed electoral reforms. These bills are HB 4545 and HB 4546, both authored by Representative Luigi Quisumbing of Cebu's 6th district.

The twin bills call for special and early voting for senior citizens and persons with disabilities, at least one day before the elections, and in specially designated places accessible to the beneficiaries, or at their respective municipal or city election registrar's offices.

If the twin bills become law, they will not only be of great comfort and benefit to senior citizens and persons with disabilities, they will also lift a huge burden off other voters with whom they are now currently lumped in the same voting centers.

This is not intended to disrespect and disparage senior citizens and persons with disabilities, but the way current voting practices are going, having to share the same voting centers with them make voting quite a hassle for others.

There would have been no problem with senior citizens and persons with disabilities come alone or in small manageable numbers. But the current practice is that they are transported in big groups to polling places by politicians.

And because an existing law makes it mandatory to give senior citizens and PWDs priority in any line, whole busloads of senior citizens and PWDs are allowed to insert themselves into the long slow-moving lines, never mind if those already in line have been queueing up for hours.

And good if only one busload of seniors and PWDs are inserted into a line. More often than not, another busload arrives and gets inserted into the same line again. So you can just imagine the feeling if yet a third bus arrives.

The twin bills, therefore, not only make voting easier for senior citizens and PWDs, they also provide great relief to those who get displaced from a line due to the insertions. More importantly, the measures will encourage greater voter participation instead of the hassle and tediousness driving people away.