Destroy 2M ARMM ballots By Marie A. Surbano and Angie M. Rosales 02/26/2010

Joint congressional oversight committee tells Comelec: Destroy 2M ARMM ballots By Marie A. Surbano and Angie M. Rosales 02/26/2010 The nearly 2 million ballots which have already been printed for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) should be destroyed.  This was the recommendation of some members of the Joint congressional oversight committee (Jcoc) on automated elections after it was reported that the 1.7 million ballots for ARMM do not bear the security markings of the National Printing Office (NPO) which is mandated under the Omnibus Election Code.  “Although the NPO marking does not add security to the ballots... But if there is time, it is a nice symbolic gesture of burning them,” said Rep. Teodoro Locsin who is known to plug for automated polls and Smartmatic. But Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said the proposed burning of the ARMM ballots would not be a good idea since it would cause some delays. “The proposal is drastic, to say the least. The truth is, we believe that it may delay the whole process because the whole ARMM (ballots) will have to be reprinted. We may run out of time, paper, ink,” revealed Melo. The Comelec earlier said there is no need to put the NPO ultra-violet ink in the ARMM ballots because it is not as important as the security markings of the Comelec.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune ALTERNATE URL: http://www.classicposters.com/headlines/20100226hed1.html

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