Comelec: No excess ballots for 2025 polls
There will be no printing of excess ballots for the 2025 midterm elections to ensure that these will not be used in unscrupulous activities, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
“We are going to print one ballot for every one voter. We are not going to overprint ballots. For the information of everyone, we will only print ballots equal to the number of registered voters, unlike in the past that there would be excess ballots,” Comelec Chair George Garcia said during the turnover of printing machines and test ballots at the National Printing Office in Quezon City on Saturday.
The poll body is eyeing to print around 70 million ballots for the May 12, 2025 national and local elections, and the first-ever Bangsamoro parliamentary elections.
The Comelec aims to finish the printing of ballots in two months—from December to February.
Garcia said the poll body is set to come up with the official list of candidates in national and local posts that will appear on the ballot “more or less before Dec. 13.”
As of Thursday, Garcia said there are around 68 million registered voters nationwide—higher than the 65.75 million registered voters during the 2022 polls.
Some voters, however, may still get a replacement ballot—as approved by the electoral board members—since the voter turnout rate has never been 100 percent.
Around 70 to 80 percent of total registered voters only cast their votes on election day in the previous years.
In the 2022 elections, the voter turnout was only 83 percent—the highest in the country since automated elections was implemented in 2010.
Garcia said the printing of only the exact number of ballots would address issues of electoral fraud.
“We cannot fully eliminate the doubts in the mind of the public about where these excess ballots would go. In addition, the presence of excess ballots creates in the minds of the voters the impression that they could just not be careful in handling their ballots, because these could be easily replaced,” the poll chief explained.
“But if the voters know that there is only one ballot for them to cast their votes, they will be more careful not only in voting but also in handling their votes,” he said.
A voter is allowed to get a replacement ballot if the first ballot was rejected by the vote-counting machine after four attempts.
The board of election inspectors (BEIs) shall then mark the rejected ballot “rejected with replacement.” But if BEIs prove that the voter purposely defaced the ballot, he or she shall not be entitled to a replacement ballot.
