2010 ballot box to exclude rejected ballots

MANILA, Philippines - In the 2010 automated elections, only legitimate ballots will be put inside ballot boxes. Rejected ballots will be put inside sealed envelopes and will be collected by the Board of Election Inspectors. Period.

The Comelec has rejected the proposal of the Project Management Office (PMO) to create a storage compartment inside the ballot boxes for ballots that will be rejected by the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

The Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) challenged the proposal.

CAC member Ramon Casiple said there is danger of tampering with votes if a compartment for rejected ballots will be made.

“Aside from incurring expenses that are outside the budget already, what would stop some people who might take advantage once the storage boxes are opened from mixing the genuine ballots from the rejected ones. We do not agree to that,” Casiple said.

 “We got what we want. The Comelec en banc agreed that the rejected ballots should not be put inside the ballot boxes. Instead, the ballots will be collected by the Board on Election Inspectors and will be placed inside a sealed envelop,” he added.

The poll body also slammed the PMO’s proposal to open the ballot boxes and collect the rejected ballots. The PMO is composed of Comelec executives except for commissioners.

“The PMO suggested that (compartment inside ballot boxes for rejected ballots) supposedly to save space. They claimed that the ballot boxes are so big so it would be difficult to store them. This should not be allowed. It would put the   the integrity of the ballots in question because there’ll be human intervention,” Casiple said.

He said that instead of going directly to the Comelec en banc, the PMO should raise its proposals through the steering committee composed of the Comelec, Smartmatic International Corp-Total Information Management Corp. and CAC.

“When we hold our next meeting on Nov. 6, we’ll bring that up. PMO’s job is to implement. They can propose but it shoulkd go through the steering committee,” Casiple said.