Excess ballots
IT is, without doubt, heartening to know that there would be no excess ballots for next year’s off-season national and local elections.
This is to ensure that “enterprising” men and women, notably politicians, may not use excess ballots for unscrupulous activities.
“We are going to print one ballot for every one voter. We are not going to overprint ballots,” said Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia.
In fact, the poll body will only print ballots equal to the number of registered voters in the country or around 70 million ballots.
There are around 68 million registered voters nationwide – higher than the 65.75 million figure during the 2022 elections.
“Tama naman ang Comelec na huwag mag-overprint ng mga balota dahil hindi naman lahat ng botante ay bubuto,” a retired poll official said.
“Bago ang araw ng halalan ay may mga botanteng namamatay. ‘Yong iba ay nagkakasakit sa araw ng eleksyon,” the Comelec official added.
Actually, only 70-80 percent of registered voters cast their votes on election day, according to official statistics.
Next year’s local election, which is “democracy in action,” is set on May 12.
The poll body deserves the all-out support of the Filipino people as it prepares for the holding of the political exercise.
