The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has said that smudged ballots and erasures and handwritten numbers on envelopes containing ballots don’t make the votes invalid.
The clarification was given by the Comelec Office for Overseas Voting (Ofov) over social media posts by some Filipino voters in Italy that showed envelopes with smudged or handwritten ballot numbers.
“In response to concerns raised about erasures and handwritten entries on the white envelopes provided for the return of accomplished official ballots, please be informed that these will not affect the validity of your vote,” Ofov said.
RELATED STORY: COMELEC: Wearing clothes with candidate’s name, photo on election day is illegal
The poll body added, “These corrections were made to ensure that the ballot ID number on the envelope matches the clustered precinct ID number on the ballot.”
The Comelec said that the ballot ID number on the envelope should be the same as the clustered precinct ID number indicated on the ballot.
The overseas voters were also warned against placing any identifying marks on their ballots like signatures that could render their ballots invalid.
READ ON: Comelec postpones VP, presidential town hall debates
Earlier on Friday in New York, the Consulate General of the Philippines suspended the “feeding” of the ballots in a vote-counting machine (VCM) because of technical problems with the apparatus.
“One of two remaining ballots we were feeding got stuck in the VCM. We resume feeding on Monday using a backup VCM,” New York Consul General Elmer Cato said in a tweet.
In a separate statement issued by the consulate it said that a “secondary” VCM was available but was not used for ballot feeding, since the Comelec’s approval was needed and the machine had not also undergone final testing.
