Careful with shading, voters told due to markers’ large tips

Election officials at Corazon Aquino Elementary School in Quezon City advised voters to be careful filling in the ovals on the ballot due to the larger tips on the markers being used.

"As much as possible, dot lang and ingat talaga sa pag-shade," said Carlota Quinto, chairperson of cluster precinct 305, saying that the markers' tips are just too big for ordinary shading.

She said that since the markers made for the 2019 elections had ink that took too long to dry and that there were too few markers from the 2016 elections, the Commission on Elections gave them new markers to use to speed up the process.

Delivered to the precincts on Sunday, the markers happened to have tips that are too wide and big that if the voters did more than just a dot, the chance of writing outside the box would be too high, said Quinto.

The vote-counting machines have accepted the ink from the markers and no complaints have been made so far from the polling place.

At least a quarter or 25% of an oval must be shaded for a vote to be counted. — BM, GMA News