The appeal is to give automation a chance and the importuning was made by the now harassed Commission on Elections.

Comelec Chairman Jose A. R. Melo issued the appeal as public school teachers the other day urged Congress leaders to pass a bill amending a provision of the Omnibus Election Code on the composition of the Board of Election Inspectors.

Under Section 164 of the code, election inspectors should be composed of a chairman and poll clerks “who must be public school teachers.”

The complaining teachers want changed the requirement of public school teachers as poll clerks because of the long hours they have to serve and the harassments, they are often subjected to by complaining partisans even after the voting.

But the teachers’ sobs and whimpers are only some of the problems that the Comelec has been encountering.

Earlier, immediately before the October 30 deadline for the registration of voters, Chairman Melo had to wheedle his way through the long line of first-time voters. Comelec had to extend office hours in its field offices in anticipation of last-minute voters registrations.

Despite all the reservations over the automation of the voting process, however, the general reaction has been one of hope and expectations.

The test that has been hailed as a complete success was held in Mindanao sometime ago, and many say that if it could be that successful in Mindanao, of all places, it could be more so anywhere in the county – whatever that means.

The fact is, it was that Mindanao experiment on automation that convinced and made the Comelec determined that the time is now to pursue it on the national level. This may be the reason why, despite some people’s hesitations, Malacañang is confident the Comelec can handle the 2010 elections with the automated voting process.

Already, the election commission has started the information campaign on the various aspects of the automation process to help guide the voters when they go to the polls.

Next month, a nationwide education and information drive on the voting procedures will be launched by the poll body.

Sources from the Office of the President the other day said it was “counting on the Commission on Elections to pursue its poll automation program amid the poll body’s current heavy workload to ensure orderly, peaceful, and honest elections next year.”

Of course, problems still crop up but they must be expected, considering that this is a first-time undertaking on a national level. That they are detected early on and remedied is good enough, to say the least.

In the first place, all these problems are not new. Right from the start the Comelec had been oppressed by problems when the idea of automation became a possibility.

The Comelec under the present leadership surely has stood its ground over the annoyance and malignity of its critics, and it is hoped it would prevail, ultimately, for the enrichment of our democratic ideal. (zhern_218@yahoo.com)