ILOILO City – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has issued an important reminder to the 3.1 million registered voters trooping to voting precincts across Western Visayas today: avoid over-voting or risk having your vote for that position voided by the vote counting machine (VCM).
Comelec Region 6 director Atty. Dennis Ausan stressed that the automated system cannot recognize votes for positions where a voter marks more names than the maximum allowed.
“If you vote for more than 12 candidates for senator, for example, the machine will automatically disregard your vote for that entire position,” he warned.
He explained that this rule applies across all contested positions.
“Only the votes within the prescribed limits will be counted,” Ausan said. “If you over-voted for senators but voted correctly for governor, congressman, or party-list, only the validly cast votes will be tallied.”
To avoid such errors, voters are strongly advised to read and follow the instructions printed on the official ballots, which indicate the number of candidates allowed per position — one for party-list, mayor, governor, vice mayor, and congressman per district; and multiple slots for city/municipal councilors and provincial board members depending on the local government unit.
Ausan also clarified that under-voting — or choosing fewer candidates than allowed — is not penalized and will still be counted.
“If you only want to vote for five senators out of the 12 slots, that’s fine. Those five votes will still be valid,” he said.
On the matter of ballot shading, Ausan encouraged voters to fully shade the ovals beside their chosen candidates’ names.
He discouraged half-shading or merely marking the ovals, which may cause the machine to miss the vote.
In line with this, the Comelec has lowered the shading threshold from 25 percent to 15 percent starting this election, in a move aimed at helping senior citizens and persons with disabilities whose incomplete shading in the past often led to uncounted votes.
The new rule means even lightly shaded ovals — so long as they reach the 15 percent threshold — will be read by the machines.
This 2025 national and local election marks the lowest shading threshold since the country began using automated voting technology in 2010./PN
