Multiple votes feared in 2010 elections

An election official disclosed yesterday that at least 25 million voters nationwide could vote twice or even more in the next 2010 presidential elections, unless the voters’ list is automated or captured in “biometrics” to prevent multiple registration.

Teofisto Alnas, director of the Commission on Elections Election and Barangay Department (EBAD) said that 25 million or over half of the more than 40 million registered voters in the country are yet to be captured by “biometrics.”

Alnas said the poll body is now using data capturing machines or biometrics to stop multiple registrations and cleanse the list of voters.

He said new young voters who will be participating in the forthcoming presidential elections would register using the data capturing machines.

The Comelec can immediately detect if a voter is already registered through the data-capturing machine, Alnas said.

He said the poll body does not have the exact figure how many voters have registered more than once.

“We do not have the exact figure, but in the last elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, we have deleted 18,000 multiple registrants,” Alnas said.

He said voters with multiple registrations or those not captured by biometrics can vote more than once and tamper the results of the elections.

To ensure clean and honest elections, Alnas said the Comelec is implementing a continuing registration and cleansing of the voters list.

“We are trying our best to cleanse our national list of voters, but as of now 25 million are yet to be captured by the biometrics,” he said.