Registered voters are entitled to only one ballot to cast votes, so they should handle it with care to prevent it from being invalidated, said Election Officer III Alice Bernadette Pama-Naranjo on Tuesday.

“We should be very careful not to tamper the security marks because the whole ballot will be invalidated,” he warned in a press conference.

Naranjo added that whether or not the tampering is done intentionally or not, once the ballot becomes invalid, then they no longer have a chance to vote.

Naranjo, who handles the voter’s education campaign of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said apart from non-tampering of security marks, voters are also advised to be conscious of over or under voting.

“The basic rule is, it is better to under vote than to over vote,” she said.

There is undervoting if an individual did not cast vote for the required number of candidates for a certain position while overvoting if it is for more than the maximum number of selections.

Overvoting will invalidate the votes for that particular position.

This time of the pandemic, Naranjo said holding a voter’s education is a challenge because their deployment is limited.

Nevertheless, they will be holding a roadshow bringing with them one vote-counting machine (VCM) to educate the voters.

Lawyer Ian Lee Ananoria, Comelec Iloilo Provincial Election Supervisor), said in the same press conference they would be going around the province, visiting various municipalities for confidence-building and voters education.

There are 1,628,752 registered voters from the city and province of Iloilo.

Ananoria said they are hoping to reach and inform their target of not less than 85 percent of voters. (PNA)