COMELEC TO RECYCLE 6 MILLION WASTED BALLOT PAPERS


Comelec started to transport six million poll ballots to be disposed following a ruling of the Supreme Court (Photo courtesy of Sandra Aguinaldo/GMA News)
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) began transporting six million wasted ballots on Friday to a warehouse in Laguna's Sta. Rosa City for proper disposal, which was originally printed for the 2025 national and local elections (NLE).
A total of 6 million ballot sheets for the upcoming May elections worth P132 million could be up for destruction and recycling, according to the Comelec.
The National Archives of the Philippines is tasked to oversee the recycling process of the unusable ballot papers for the midterm vote.
“We were informed that the old process of micro-shredding won’t work anymore, so what we’ll do is melt all of the dispatched ballots using a solution for direct recycling,” Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said.
The Comelec will use new sheets in the printing of fresh ballot papers because the drying and curing process to recycle the unusable ballot papers will take time, and the poll body could no longer wait for it since its goal is to complete the printing of new ballot papers by January 21.
Laudiangco said the disposal of all ballots, good and rejected, as well as the ballot paper trimmings, would follow the rules and procedures of the National Archives of the Philippines. Alternative uses for the recycled paper will be later studied, he said.
The ballots have to be destroyed as these excluded the names of aspirants whose disqualification from the May elections was prohibited by the Supreme Court this week. Despite a two-week delay caused by the printing suspension, Garcia assured the public that the elections scheduled for May 12, 2025, would proceed as planned.
The poll body began the transfer of the affected ballot papers from the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City to their warehouse in Santa Rosa, Laguna. The Comelec said moving the ballots to Laguna would take 5 to 6 days.
The Comelec targets the generation of 1,667 ballot face templates by Tuesday, followed by serialization of ballots and the start of reprinting by the middle of next week. Calibration, reconfiguration and testing of the printers of NPO that could be used to augment production was also done on Friday.
Source: ABS-CBN News
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