Amended Comelec rules allow voter to get replacement ballot

A voter in the May 9 elections can now have his or her ballot replaced in case the machine rejected it, provided that the rejection was not his or her fault.

The Commission on Elections introduced this amendment, among others, in the General Instructions for board of election inspectors (BEIs) following the Supreme Court's order for the issuance of voting receipts.

Sec. 12 of the Comelec en banc resolution provides: "No replacement ballot shall be issued to a voter whose ballot is rejected by the VCM (vote counting machine) except if the rejection of the ballot is not due to the fault of the voter."

The resolution, however, did not state what particular situations would fall under such provision.

According to poll chief Andres Bautista, this may include "a very small exemption" when the ballot given to a voter has discrepancies on the timing marks or was miscut that the verification process did not catch.

The standing rule on the matter is still one ballot per voter except on several situations.

"Matinding debate ito [sa aming meeting] because sa aming palagay, mali 'yung [desisyon noong] 2010 and 2013," said Bautista, who introduced the amendment.

"Kung hindi kasalanan ng botante na hindi tanggapin ng makina 'yung kaniyang balota, why are you going to penalize the botante? Kasi it's possible na nagkamali sa verification ng ballot. So again, we have to side with allowing the right of suffrage to be exercised," he added

"One is to one yan, totoo, pero alam naman natin na hindi 'yan 100 percent turnout. So may spare ballots. Naglagay tayo ng provision para kung hindi kasalanan ng botante, you don't penalize at mabigyan ulit [ng balota]," Bautista further said.

Pursuant to the 1-1 rule, the Comelec is printing some 56.7 million ballots, including 54.3 pieces allotted for voters here in the Philippines and more than 1.1 million for overseas absentee voters.

A voter—with the assistance of a BEI—is allowed to feed his or her ballot into the VCM for "four times in four different orientations."

After this, the voter must return it to the BEI chairman, who will write "REJECTED" at the back of the ballot. All members of the BEI of the said polling place will have to sign there.

The ballot will then be placed inside the envelope for rejected ballots.

Former Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the amendment may allow some leeway for voters to just claim the rejection was not their fault.

"That opens an opportunity for the voter to now claim that the ballot was rejected not on his fault and therefore he should be given [another]," he said.

He added: "The problem is, if you have 800 voters and 700 voters appear turn 120 voters ask for a replacement ballot, at the end of the day somebody goes there and the BEI says, 'Sorry, wala na kaming ballot.' What happens? 'Di ba? So now you disenfranchise the voter also?"

Bautista said they see rejection of ballots only for a "very small exception."

"Kapag merong 100 ballots na 'di tinatanggap, naku, Houston, we have a problem," he said. "This has to be a very small exemption."

According to the Comelec, some 761,000 ballots were found defective at the verification process at the National Printing Office, 730,000 of which have been reprinted and verified.

Ballots found defective are first quarantined where it may be deemed rejected or that the defect "is not intrinsic."

"Some of it we actually used and approved like the oversized, we just trimmed it and used again. Meron rin pong wrong spelling, okay naman, so ginamit pa rin. Hindi po ibig sabihin 'pag na-quarantine ay papalitan agad, " Genevieve Guevarra, head of printing committee, told GMA News.

Once declared spoiled, ballots are cut using the guillotine or invalidated with lines along the timing marks, she added. —KBK, GMA News