Petition for Extension of the Electoral Period for the 2014 Sanggunian General Elections We, the undersigned,

do hereby submit a petition to extend the elections for at least two regular school days. Insufficient Time In the first place, the amount of time needed to accommodate the whole student body in going through the voting process, which in this case includes both the reading and voting on constitutional amendments in the plebiscite and selection of candidates in the election proper, proved to be greater than the total amount of voting time allotted by the COMELEC, even in light of the extensions thus far provided. This is proven by a time and motion study conducted. With the same spirit as the SJC decision released in February 20, 2011, in response to a similar petition requesting an extension of that years General Elections due to insufficient time allotted for the student body to vote, a new time and motion study was conducted. This time and motion study determines the amount of time necessary for all possible voters to be able to vote. At the very least, COMELEC must make the total number of computer minutes available for all students, and if the number of minutes is insufficient, based on the aforementioned decision, there is a need to extend the election period. Allan Cabrera, 4 BSM AMF, conducted the study, and the results are as follows: Total Needed Computer Minutes [C] = [AxB] 36560

Time Required (in minutes per student) [A] 4.57

Number of LS students [B] 8000

Date 2/19/14 2/20/14 2/21/14 2/24/14

Number of Computers [D] 15 15 10 15

Number of Minutes Open Per Day [E] 180 480 480 480

Total Number of Computer Minutes Available [F] = [DxE] 2700 7200 4800 7200

Total:

21900

Additional computer minutes were available for the courses affected by the technical errors, but even with those factored in, the total number of computer minutes is insufficient in order to compensate for the missing number of computer minutes. Therefore, pursuant to the decision made by the SJC on February 20, 2011, an extension of the elections is in order. Undue Voter Fatigue as a Direct Result of Multiple Technical Errors and Inconsistent Announcements Additionally, during the electoral process, several issues arose, chiefly stemming from the fact that before Monday, 12pm, the votes of students from nineteen different courses were not accepted by the computerized voting system due to system error. Because of this, students who participated in the electoral process during this time did not have the right of having their votes duly recognized. Affected students were initially told that the votes had been recovered, but this was later retracted and they were asked to re-vote. Some had to re-vote more than once, as further complications arose. Eventually, the decision was made to give the students from the affected courses additional days to recast their vote, but disproportionate damage had already been done. Many of the students whose ballots were not tallied had lost their interest in participating in the electoral process until such a time that COMELEC released official word and proof that the system had already been fixed and was currently functioning. It has not done so at the time of writing. Furthermore, incalculable damage has been done not only to the students who belong to the affected courses but also to the rest of the student body, who had doubts regarding the functioning of the electronic system. Many students who could have and might have wanted to vote have become disenfranchised from doing so because the news regarding the faulty system spread fast. We further submit that the student body was further discouraged from voting due to the many inconsistent announcements on the part of COMELEC. COMELEC initially released an announcement that directly stated that the missing votes had been recovered. The retraction came in a comment on the aforementioned status message, not as its own announcement. Thus, students were left hanging in terms of deciding whether or not to push through with actually voting given the potential errors of the system, and though they awaited a more concrete manifestation of the effectiveness of the system through some sort of scientific study, COMELEC failed to publish any such document. Many students explicitly did not want to vote, or vote again, until such proof materialized. Additionally, we assert that the damage caused by the system error, specifically as regards voting time and voter disenfranchisement, was not limited to the students of the directly affected courses. The time spent in line by the students of these courses was not just time wasted on the part of these students; it was also wasted on the part of the voting body as a whole. Whenever a student from an affected course was in line or at a voting station, casting a vote that would turn out to not be recorded and would have to be redone, that was also time

during which other students from non-glitched courses were not able to cast their votes (due to limited space/time/voting stations). Allowing extra voting time only for the courses directly affected by the error does not remedy the time lost by students of non-glitched courses. The system error affected everyone, not just the people whose votes werent being recorded properly. We petition for an extension of the election because of all these things, and on the grounds of the principle of an election. An election is meant to be the fair, balanced arena of equal representation (one person, one vote) in which the members of the student body enact their power and their democratic right to shape their student government. In this case, the entire system which was supposed to facilitate this process turned out to be flawed--due to system error, due to insufficient time allotted. While the COMELEC is taking steps to address this, we submit that further rectification in the form of a two-day extension is necessary--for all these reasons, and, ultimately, to safeguard the mandate of the officers and the government who are elected as a result of this process. Undersigned, Vanessa del Rosario VP for Internals, Ignite Redentor John R. Dimla Chairperson, School of Humanities Board Antonio Rafael N. Elicao Secretary-General, Sanggunian Pamela Gaerlan 2nd Year SOSE CB Representative Ray Cristofer Gomez 2nd Year JGSOM CB Representative Gabriel Crisanto Nolasco Constituent James Gregory Tieng Constituent Ryan Carl Y. Yu Vice President, Sanggunian