CCHOPE ELECTION 2001

Once the voting is finished, "the board of election inspectors shall publicly count in the polling place the votes cast and ascertain the results. The board of election inspectors shall not adjourn or postpone or delay the count until it has been fully completed, unless otherwise ordered by the Commission on Elections.
The COMELEC, in the interest of free, orderly, and honest elections, "may order the board of election inspectors to count the votes and to accomplish the election returns and other forms prescribed" under existing election laws in any other place within a public building in the same municipality or city. However, the said public building shall not be located within the perimeter of or inside a military or police camp or reservation nor inside a prison compound (Sec. 206, B.P. Blg. 881, as amended).

The counting of votes shall be made in the following manner:

(a) The board of election inspectors shall unfold the ballots and form separate piles of one hundred ballots each, which shall be held together with rubber bands, with cardboard of the size of the ballots to serve as folders;

(b) The chairman of the board of election inspectors shall take the ballots of the first pile one by one and read the names of candidates voted for and the offices for which they were voted in the order in which they appear thereon, assuming such a position as to enable all of the watchers to read such names;

(c) The chairman shall sign and affix his right hand thumbmark at the back of the ballot immediately after it is counted;

(d) The poll clerk, and the third member, respectively, shall record on the election returns and the tally board or sheet each vote as the names voted for each office are read;

(e) Each vote shall be recorded by a vertical line, except every fifth vote which shall be recorded by a diagonal line crossing the previous four vertical lines;

(f) One party member shall see to it that the chairman reads the vote as written on the ballot, and the other shall check the recording of the votes on the tally board or sheet and the election returns seeing to it that the same are correctly accomplished;

(g) After finishing the first pile of ballots, the board of election inspectors shall determine the total number of votes recorded for each candidate, the sum being noted on the tally board or sheet and on the election returns. In case of discrepancy, such recount as may be necessary shall be made;

(h) The ballots shall then be grouped together again as before the reading. Thereafter, the same procedure shall be followed with the second pile of ballots and so on successively;

(i) After all the ballots have been read, the board of election inspectors shall sum up the totals recorded for each candidate, and the aggregate sum shall be recorded both on the tally board or sheet and on the election returns. It shall then place the counted ballots in an envelope provided for the purpose, which shall be closed signed and deposited in the compartment for valid ballots; and

(j) The tally board or sheet as accomplished and certified by the board of election inspectors shall not be changed or destroyed but shall be kept in the compartment for valid ballots.

(Sec. 210, B.P. Blg. 881, as amended)

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Last Updated: Friday, April 13, 2001 05:19:59 PM