The official ballots intended for Negros Oriental for the upcoming May 13 mid-term elections were delivered to the different towns and cities on Wednesday, except for the municipality of Valencia.
The deployment of the official ballots by the 2GO, the official cargo forwarder of the Commission on Elections in the Visayas, was done simultaneously in five delivery vans beginning at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
They were escorted by police personnel in marked vehicles, and were received by the city and municipal treasurers and election officers.
According to Atty. Jerome Brillantes, Dumaguete election officer, no untoward incident was reported during the transport and delivery of the official ballots.
The official ballots will be stored at the city and municipal treasurer’s offices until deployment a day or two ahead of the elections to their assigned voting precincts, said Brillantes.
The municipality of Valencia had requested the official ballots delivered Thursday as some representatives from the different political parties/candidates had to be informed yet.
Verification of the official ballots, which are placed in sealed boxes, will be done either tomorrow or Friday, according to Atty. Brillantes.
But, the COMELEC officer clarified that the inventory/verification is limited only to cross-checking the allocated official ballots for each area but the sealed boxes are not to be opened until they are delivered to the different voting precincts.
Brillantes said that unlike in the 2010 polls, there is no COMELEC resolution this time granting treasurers to open the boxes containing the official ballots prior to delivery to the voting precincts.
The Board of Election Inspectors is the one tasked to open these boxes once they arrive at their individual destinations, he added.
With the law mandating one official ballot per registered voter, it is expected that a total of 722,265 official ballots corresponding to the total number of registered voters in Negros Oriental have been delivered.
Brillantes reiterated there are no extra official ballots for this year’s mid-term elections. (PNA)
