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Comelec to mail sample ballots to 50M voters

Written by magnolia_eic on 02 March 2010

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be sending out voters’ information sheets (VIS) to all of more than 50 million registered voters in April to prepare them for the country’s first-ever automated polls on May 10.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the VISs, which will be in the form of an official ballot, will be sent to more than 50 million voters via mail. The VIS would contain the list of all the national and local candidates, the voter’s name, address, precinct number and polling place.

Larrazabal said they hope that through the sample ballots voters will not only be familiarized with the ballot but also in the new process of voting.

Since the VIS is in the form of a ballot and is specific to the voter’s city or municipality, it could be used for practice voting. Instructions in Tagalog are also printed on the sheet.

Although the sample ballot is somewhat similar to the actual ballot, the Comelec ruled out the possibility of it being used in electoral fraud due to its distinguishing marks.

Among the differences include the sample ballots being black and white since the official ballot is colored. The sample ballots will also not bear the precinct identifier, which is the one required by the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in order to verify its veracity aside from the sample ballots having an overarching label of “SAMPLE BALLOTS” in its face. (PIA)

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