Comelec wants voter identification via facial and voice recognition, iris scanner

The Commission on Elections is seeking to improve its voter identification system by using new technologies such as facial and voice recognition and iris scanner.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia made the proposal at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday as he stressed the need for a general registration which he believes will address the problem of double and multiple registrations.

The Comelec chairman called on Congress to consider the conduct of a general registration which will essentially nullify the current national voters’ list and create a new database.

“’Yun po ‘yung pinu-push natin na general registration. Sana po mapag-isipan ng ating mga kagalang-galang na mambabatas. Hindi masyadong malaki ang gastos kasi ‘yun po ang regular naming ginagawa e. Bubuksan lang ang aming opisina o di kaya kung gusto nila sa mga eskwelahan magpapa-general registration,” Garcia said.

“Ang gusto lang po namin bago mangyari ‘yong general registration, makapag-improve ang Comelec ng system,” he said.

Garcia added that the additional biometrics can bolster the identification process.

“Pagka tumanda tanda ka pa nang kaunti nag-iba na, kumulubot na. Baka hindi na ma-trace ng aming [Automated Fingerprint Identification System]. Kaya po dapat 10 fingers na kasama ang iris, kasama ang facial recognition, kasama ang voice para pwede naming i-incorporate ang feature na ‘yon sa bagong makina ng 2028 [elections],” he said.

The proposed upgrade for the Comelec’s identification system would cost around P2 billion, he added.

But Garcia emphasized that this new system would be of no use if the current list of voters will not be nullified.

Recently, the Comelec has been cleaning the voters’ list after it detected hundreds of thousands double or multiple registration in its database.

Comelec spokesperson Rex Laudiangco said that as of July 18, a total of 457,899 voter registrations have been deleted or abated.

Of the said number, 294,186 were tagged as double or multiple registrations, 155,408 are voters who already transferred to another city or municipality, 178 individuals who failed to vote twice in two succeeding regular elections, 2,480 individuals who already died, and 2,566 registrations which were found to have double or multiple records in the city/municipal level. — BM, GMA Integrated News