Comelec to start printing of 55.7 million ballots for May 2016 elections

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The Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) will start printing of more than 55.7 million official ballots for the May 9 polls at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City on Monday.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said that the start of ballot printing will involve the dry run of the actual process.

The poll body will be printing the ballots using the three Canon printers at the NPO. It will be printing ballots for the country’s registered voters numbering 54,363,844, overseas absentee voters (1,376,067), as well as those needed in the final testing and sealing (FTS) of the vote counting machines (VCMs).

The Comelec chief said that they are looking to finish the printing by April 25.

To be printed at the front face of the ballot are the names of candidates for president, vice president, senators, and party-list groups while the names of candidates for local positions, like mayors, governors, councilors, will be printed at the back face of the ballot.

According to Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez, printing at the start will be a bit slow until at peak, it can average almost a million per day.

Jimenez added that all the ballots are precinct-specific with a size that will be shorter than the 8½ by 26 inches used in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

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