The Comelec finishes printing ballots and gets ready for release

SF | The Comelec finishes printing ballots and gets ready for release | MANILA – The official paper votes and other forms needed for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) on Oct. 30 were finished being printed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday.

The Comelec and the National Printing Office finished printing the manual ballots, manual election returns, certificate of canvass, statement of votes, and summary statement of votes. “Kanina po ay pormal nang tinapos ng Comelec at National Printing Office ang aming pagpi-print ng ating mga manual ballots, manual election returns, certificate of canvass, statement of votes, at summary statement of votes,” Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said during the elections.

According to Laundiangco, about 92 million ballots were made, and 480,000 of them have already been sent to the Comelec.

He said the votes are being prepared to be given out in October.

Laudiangco told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in a Viber message that there will be about 68,197,135 ballots for the barangay elections and 23,857,839 ballots for the Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which is made up of the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, will get the official BSKE votes first.

Laudiangco said that Batanes would be one of the provinces that would get manual ballots the quickest.

He did say that the National Capital Region (NCR), Central Luzon, and Calabarzon would be the last places to plan.

Automatic votes for BSK

Comelec and NPO printed about 6,000 test ballots for the pilot automated BSKE in some parts of Dasmariñas City, Cavite, and Quezon City, in addition to the paper ballots.

In the next few days, Laudiangco said, the ballots for the automated polls would be printed, and everything would be done in a week.

First, Comelec said that automated BSKE polls would be held in Barangay Pasong Tamo in Quezon City’s 6th District, which has about 60,766 voters; in Dasmariñas City’s Barangay Paliparan III and Zone II, which have 51,435 and 1,475 registered voters, respectively.

In total, 86,165 official ballots will be printed for the barangay elections and 27,511 ballots will be printed for the SK elections in the three villages. (via PNA)