Don’t bus voters, pols told

THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) yesterday warned politicians against busing people to enlist multiple registrants for the 2016 elections.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez tweeted that busing people would be futile because multiple registrants would be caught through the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS).

He was referring to the system that allows the Comelec to cross-match biometric registrations of voters to eliminate double and multiple registrants.

“To politicians busing registrants: Your efforts are useless. Our biometric system will catch your double registrants,” Jimenez said.

The warning came after the Comelec observed that registrants were coming in groups in the final days of the voter registration for the May 2016 elections.

“There are so many who insist on registering as first-time voters when they look over 20 years old. That’s a sign of busing,” Jimenez said.

Biometrics refers to the automated identification data of registrants, including their photographs, fingerprints and signatures, as captured by the Comelec’s voter registration machine.

Busing not prohibited

Earlier, the Comelec said busing registrants was not prohibited.

“Mobilizing registrants is OK. We are not prohibiting it. What we are against is [busing on] election day. For registration, ultimately, our goal is the more people to register, the better,” Jimenez said in a previous interview.

He said, however, that the Comelec was confident that with the automated fingerprint identification system, multiple registrants would not be able to vote in more than one precinct.

The nationwide voter registration ends tomorrow, Oct. 31.