THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) allayed fears of some voters who discovered that their voter registration were placed on “deactivated” status based on the Online Precinct Finder even if they were able to vote in previous elections.
According to Comelec Commissioner George Garcia, the poll body will release a clarification once they have confirmed from the Comelec Information and Communication Technology Department what really happened.
“If that was what happened, don’t worry. We will seek clarification on all of these things. In this first day of the week, we will immediately seek clarification from our information technology department why this happened,” according to Garcia.
Garcia said what is more important is that the voter’s name is still included in the Voters’ Information Sheet, which is considered as the most accurate record of registered voters qualified to vote on the May 9 elections.
However, Garcia mentioned that voters who failed to vote in two previous electoral exercises, including the 2018 barangay elections and the 2019 mid-term elections, are already considered as deactivated.
Last March 31, the Comelec announced that there are more than 7.2 million individuals who failed to vote in two consecutive elections and thus were removed from the list or have been deactivated.