Comelec: Voters can undervote for May 12 polls

The Commission on Elections. File Photo

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has reminded the voters that undervoting for the May 12 ballots is allowed and will not invalidate their ballots.

Comelec made this clarification on Friday following a social media claim that “it’s wiser not to leave blanks in the ballot” as the “dirty tricks group” will find a way to fill up those spaces.”

“FAKE NEWS ang social media post na kumakalat ukol sa babala laban sa pag-iiwan ng blangko o pag-undervote sa balota,” Comelec said in an advisory.

(A social media post on undervoting or leaving blanks on the ballot is fake news.)

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“Voters should not be scared because they are the ones who will feed their ballots in the Automated Counting Machine (ACM),” it added.

However, Comelec earlier advised that overvoting will have their vote in a certain position invalid. Voters can only vote up to 12 senatorial candidates and only one for Party-list groups, mayoral, vice mayoral, gubernatorial, vice gubernatorial, and Congressional seats.

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The Comelec also said that the voters can review their votes through the ballot image in the ACM’s screen and the Voter-Verified Paper Audit.

“The ‘dirty tricks group’ has no opportunity to change your votes because feeding the ballots is already noted by the ACM,” the Comelec said.

The poll body warned that spreading false information on the elections is considered an election offense under Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code. /jpv