By Ferdinand Patinio/PNA
MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is introducing slight modifications in the design of the ballots and voter receipts to be used in the May 13 national and local elections.
Leo Lim, Comelec information officer, said Thursday among the minor changes to be adopted is the placement of positions and candidates in the ballots.
“Candidates for senators and local positions will be at the front face of the ballots while the party-list groups will be at the back,” Lim said in a press conference.
In previous elections, the names of those running as senators and party-list representatives were in front of the ballot while local bets were found at the back.
The poll body official explained that the changes were adopted to do away with longer ballots.
“This is so we can optimize the space in the ballot,” Lim added.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, meanwhile, said the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) or the voter receipts will also be modified.
“It has more content, such as a QR Code and system hash. Unlike before, when it was more like a receipt from the cashier,” he added.
On the other hand, the poll body official said there is no enhancement on the vote counting machines (VCMs) in terms of voter usage.
The Comelec is again using the VCMs that were first utilized in the 2016 polls.
