Comelec: Ballots not pre-shaded contrary to video posted online

An official of the Commission in Elections (Comelec) on Thursday denied allegations that the official ballots for the May 13 midterm polls had been preshaded with ultraviolet (UV) marks.

“We tested, but the supposed UV marks were not read by the vote-counting machine. The VCM actually looks for black ink—the real ink, not invisible,” said Jose Tolentino Jr., Comelec executive director, at a press briefing.

UV marks are among the security features of the official ballots for the elections.

Tolentino issued the statement after a video was supposedly uploaded online and showed a ballot with UV marks for certain candidates.

Staged video

“It was obviously a staged video because the ballot that was used did not have the QR (Quick Response) code,” he said.

It was also not an official ballot because it did not bear other security marks, he added.

No UV marks were placed on any oval on the official ballots and even if there were, they would not be read by the VCM, the poll official said.

The Comelec earlier said it may hold liable people who engage in “dishonorable acts of dishonesty” that erode public trust in the mechanisms and processes of democratic elections.

Meawhile, the Comelec on Thursday deposited in escrow the source codes of the remaining components of the automated election system at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The source codes are those for the rebuild of the operating system image for the Consolidation and Canvassing System that will be used in newly purchased laptops and printers, transmission router and the domain name server janitor. —TINA G. SANTOS