YVP Voters Education Program
Dear Friends and Partners,
YouthVotePhilipines, a consolidated force of progressive, reform-minded youth groups and organizations working toward voters’ education and empowerment, would like to share with you and your constituencies some useful information about the physical process of voting or voter’s engagement with the special Automated Election System Ballot for May 10, 2010.
The paper ballot for the Philippine National and Local Elections of 2010 is 8.5 x 25 inches long. The ballot contains all the names of candidates running for every position. Candidates for national positions are listed on the front of the ballot, while those running for local positions can be found at the back of the ballot.
For each position, candidates’ names are listed vertically in one horizontal block. Security markings of the ballot include UV markings and barcodes. Barcodes are found on all sides of the paper ballot, front and back. Barcodes contains encryptions configured for each Precinct Count Optical Scan or PCOS machine and is different for each precinct. Therefore, ballots cannot be photocopied and is not interchangeable with other precincts.
Instructions and reminders on how to handle the ballot can be found on top of the front page. Voters are reminded to shade the oval next to their preferred candidate and not to “over vote”. If a voter shades more than the allowed ovals for a position, his or her vote/s will be invalidated only for that category. Ovals are faint and light gray, so that the PCOS machine will not “read” the outline of the oval as a marked oval. Voters are reminded not to make unnecessary markings and not to fold or smudge the ballot. The Board of Election Inspector should authenticate the ballot by signing within the appropriate box on top of the front page before handing it to the voter.
YouthVotePhilippines has available sample ballots, as prescribed by COMELEC, for purposes of Voter Education (practice voting) and Mock Polls. We are offering voters education packets that include voter's education CDs and ballots. These can be used by schools, organizations, communities and companies. Should schedule permit, voter education forums can also be conducted.
The front layout is the COMELEC layout for National Positions. The back layout presents a list of reminders for every voter. We also have short instructional videos on the voting process and to encourage voters to become informed.
For more information or inquiries kindly email YouthVote Secretariat atyvotephilippines@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Youth Vote Team
