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Taking a selfie with your ballot? Think again, you might end up committing an election offense.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday said it will investigate cases of overseas voters who took selfies with their ballots.
Commissioner Arthur Lim said the poll body has recorded nine cases of voters taking selfies with ballots in Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Brunei, Vientienne Laos and Madrid.
- COMELEC reminds voters that they are not allowed to take selfies with their ballots
- Taking photographs or any copy of one’s ballots is strictly prohibited by election rules
- Voters are also reminded to properly mark their ballots, avoiding “no-write zones” of the paper
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) reminded the public that voters are not allowed to take selfies with their ballots on Election Day, this coming May 9.
The poll body said this is in accordance to rules which prohibit the reproduction or making a copy of one’s ballot. This is to ensure the protection of the vote.
“A photograph is a copy,” COMELEC spokesperson James Jimenez explained to GMA News.
Voters are also encouraged to report incidents of vote-buying and other forms of electioneering, which the COMELEC lamented have occurred in the past and are anticipated to be repeated during the upcoming national and local elections.
In addition, the poll body also reminded the voting public of how to properly fill out the ballot based on their experience in the last two elections, which saw a number of cases of rejected ballots due to improper handling by the voters themselves Jimenez pointed out that the improper marking of the ballot was found to be the most common problem that emerged during the previous elections.
Thus, voters are advised not to mark the so-called “no-write zones” on the ballot paper itself.
“Ang balota natin mayroon siyang mga no-write zones, mga parte ng balota na pag sinulatan di na bibilangin. Ituturing siyang fake ng makina. [Our ballots have no-write zone, or part of the ballot that, when written on, can no longer be counted. They would be considered fake by the machine],” he explained further.
Around 90 percent of ballot rejections are due to voters mistakenly marking the no-write zones. Another common case involves ballots getting wrinkled due to careless handling.
The COMELEC, however, says that should a ballot end up wrinkled, the paper should be re-fed into the machine in four diöerent orientations; similar to how it is done with vendo machines.
The poll body has been intensifying its voter education drive as Election Day draws closer.
SOURCE: ABS-CBN NEWS, GMA NEWS, KICKER DAILY
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