Comelec considers 15% ballot shading threshold

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is considering lowering the ballot shading threshold to 15 percent in the 2025 midterm election, as the issue had become the basis for some candidates to file election protests in the past suffrage.

Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said this will allow machines to read as valid vote marks that cover at least 15 percent of the circle beside a candidate’s name on the ballot.

“We trust the system that much, that’s why we are recommending to the En Banc to lower the threshold. Because of the 50 percent that used to become an issue, it becomes a basis for filing cases, protests,” Garcia told reporters in an ambush interview.

“At 15 percent, at least even the elderly, those with disabilities, are having a bit of a hard time, or maybe even just a dot, will be permitted and counted because apparently, that’s the intention of the voter,” Garcia maintained.

Further, Garcia stressed that the 15 percent threshold is enough to show “the real intention of the voter.”

“That’s the basis of the elections. We are not supposed to suppress the intention of the voter,” he added.

In the 2022 and 2019 polls, the threshold adopted was at 25 percent while in 2013 and 2016, it was at 50 percent.

The threshold used in the 2010 elections, the first electoral exercise of the country to use the automated election system, was 20 percent.

Despite this, Garcia urged candidates to help the poll body educate the voters on the proper shading and how to accomplish the ballot once the campaign period begins.

The campaign period for national elections is scheduled from 11 February to 10 May, while the campaign period for local elections is slated from 28 March to 10 May.