Robredo: 25% valid vote threshold shows true intent of voters
THE 25 percent threshold for valid vote set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the 2016 polls upholds the intent of the voter, Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo said on Sunday.
Robredo was responding to the Comelec’s comment filed before the Supreme Court, which affirmed Robredo’s position that the ongoing recount for the 2016 Vice Presidential race should use a 25 percent valid vote threshold based on the Comelec resolutions that were issued for the 2016 polls.
The ongoing manual recount stemmed from the protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. against the alleged “fraudulent” election results.
“The Comelec Resolution of using 25 percent as threshold was made because voters cannot be disenfranchised. Yes, the Comelec’s instructions to voters was to shade the ovals in the ballot [beside their preferred candidate], but there are people who have failed to comply. But what is clear here is the 25 percent shows the intent of the voter,” Robredo said in her radio show Biserbisyong Leni.
“The Comelec did not want the machine to count unintended markings or smudged ink, so they have determined that 25 percent would be enough to show the intent of the voter and would not disenfranchise the voters,” Robred said.
The Vice President also dismissed claims that the Comelec sided with the 25 percent valid vote threshold because it was conspiring with the Robredo camp.
Robredo cited that under the Random Manual Audit Visual Guidelines of Comelec, a valid mark is one whose score is higher than the Vote Counting Machine’s (VCM) mark detection threshold of 20 to 25 percent or higher of the oval.
Furthermore, the same Comelec guidelines provide that a valid mark is one that the VCM always recognizes as a vote intention and once cast, counts for the candidate or selection made.
In addition, the Comelec’s 2016 National and Local Elections Random Manual Audit Report also states that the Comelec set the threshold at 25 percent “to ensure that the chances of a mark would be read as a vote.”
The poll body also issued a September 2016 resolution setting 25 percent as a valid vote threshold for the manual counting of votes for the Marcos protest.
“Comelec has issued a number of decisions about what is the valid vote threshold before and after the elections. What we are asking is for the PET to use the standard that was used in the 2016 polls because we can’t change the rules in the middle of the game,” Robredo said.
Robredo defeated Marcos by 263,473 votes in May 2016.
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