Dumped poll papers not ballots for Marcos Jr.

DAGUPAN CITY—The election materials found dumped in an abandoned building in Alaminos City last week were not official ballots with votes for vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., according to a provincial election official.

“There was just one ballot [among the] trash and it was a rejected ballot,” election supervisor Joel Gines said on Friday.

Gines was reacting to a social media post which claimed that millions of ballots favoring Marcos were hidden in an abandoned building in Alaminos three days after the May 9 elections.

“I have asked our election officer in Alaminos to secure the paraphernalia for safekeeping,” Gines said.

The Alaminos City police coordinated with the Commission on Elections  when the poll materials were found inside a building at Tongling compound in Barangay Poblacion at 2 p.m. on May 12.

Among the materials found were 23 brown envelopes marked “Commission on Elections Pilipinas 2016,” four bottles of indelible ink, sticker seals, a preshaded official ballot and 12 ballot secrecy folders.

Gines said the preshaded ballot may have been a rejected ballot that the board of election inspectors may have replaced. Gabriel Cardinoza