DFA exec pins ‘pre-shaded’ ballots on human error

MANILA, Philippines, April 22 ------ A series of “human errors” made by consulate personnel handling official ballots for overseas absentee voting (OAV) has caused what was earlier reported as “pre-shaded” ballots, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) told the Senate on Tuesday.

Brigido Dulay, the DFA undersecretary for civilian security and consular affairs, denied reports mainly on social media that pre-shaded ballots, purportedly meant to benefit presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his running mate, Sara Duterte, were handed out at various overseas polling posts. “By virtue of a human error, when the ballot was given out to the voter, two ballots that were sticking together after coming out of the printing press, and when this ballot was filled up, the voter actually filled two ballots,” he said.

When this anomaly was discovered as the ballots were to be fed to the vote-counting machine, DFA personnel supposedly peeled off the second ballot, but in another case of human error, it was returned to the pile of unused ballots instead of being lumped with other spoiled ballots, Dulay said. He said that “again partly due to human error, this [ballot] was mixed in the receptacle for unused valid ballots.” The supposedly spoiled ballot was then mistakenly handed to another voter, causing the “impression” that the ballot received was “pre-shaded,” according to the DFA official. But Dulay dismissed reports of similar pre-handed ballots being handed out to voters in Dubai. “Insofar as the reports are also concerned, the alleged distribution of pre-shaded ballots [in Dubai] is fake news,” he said.

Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said the supposedly pre-shaded ballots may have escaped scrutiny from election officers as the chair of the board of election inspectors only authenticates official ballots on the first page. “If an allegation is that two ballots were given, it must have been authenticated on the first page only because at the back page, there’s no authentication of the chairman,” he said.

Dulay assured the committee that voting posts have resumed normal operations, except for three that had suffered delays. Ballots and other voting materials have not yet been received by the OAV posts in India and Damascus, Syria. Voting was suspended in Shanghai, China, because of a government-imposed COVID-19 lockdown.

Source: inquirer.net