Voter registration needs election boards’ approval: Comelec

“Once they are approved by the ERBs (Election Registration Boards), that is the only time one can say that an applicant is already a registered voter.” (File Photo By Elmer B. Domingo – Own work/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA — Those who have filed application for registration from July 2 to September 29 are not yet officially voters, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Monday.

“Once they are approved by the ERBs (Election Registration Boards), that is the only time one can say that an applicant is already a registered voter,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in an interview.

The ERB will process the applications in approximately two weeks. The notifications of approvals and disapprovals will then be posted at the Offices of the Election Officers.

Each city and municipality have their own ERBs, which is composed of the city/municipal election officer, a public school official, and the local civil registrar.

The poll body has reported that it has received more than 2.5 million applications for voter registration during the three-month registration period in connection with the May 2019 national and local elections.

This exceeds the poll body’s earlier projection of 1.5 to 2 million applications for voter registration.

Applications for voter registration, transfer/transfer with reactivation; reactivation; change/correction of entry; and inclusion/reinstatement of records in the list of voters were accepted during the registration period.