Article 26p. 26

SPECIAL RULES OF PROCEDURE SUPPLEMENT TO THE RULES OF COURT

Section 5. Prohibited access. – During the revision, no

person other than the judge, the clerk of the court, the

chairperson

and

the

members

of

the

revision

committee,

the

parties

and

their

duly

authorized

representatives shall have the access to the revision

area.

Section 6. Conduct of revision. – The revision of the

votes on the ballots shall be done manually and visually

and through the use of appropriate PCOS machines,

according to the procedure below:

(a) On the scheduled day of revision, the following, if

needed, should be in the custody of the court:

(i)the ballot boxes containing the ballots in protested

and counter protested precincts; and

(ii) the data storage devices and the PCOS machines

used in the precincts concerned or any other device

that

can

be

used

to

authenticate

or

assure

the

genuineness of the ballots;

(b) The revision committee shall initially note, before

anything else, the condition of the ballot box and its

locks and locking mechanism, and record this condition

in the revision report. Based on this observation, the

revision committee must also determine whether the

integrity of the ballot box has been preserved.

(c) The ballot box shall then be opened and the ballots

taken out. The "valid" ballots shall first be counted,

without regard to the votes obtained by the parties.

This will be followed by the counting of the torn,

unused stray and rejected ballots, as classified at the

polling place.

(d) The votes appearing in the election returns copy for

the ballot box shall then be recorded in the minutes.

(e) Prior to the actual revision, the revision committee

must authenticate each and every ballot to make sure

that it was the same ballots cast and fed to the PCOS

machine during the voting. The authentication shall be

through the use of PCOS machines actually used

during the elections in the subject precinct, or by

another device certified by the Commission to be

capable

of

performing

the

desired

authentication

requirement through the use of the bar codes and the

ultra-violet ray code detection mechanism.

(f) The recount shall only proceed after the revision

committee, through its chairperson and members, has

determined that the integrity of the ballots has been

preserved.

(g) The revision committee shall thereafter proceed to

look at the ballots and count the indicated votes for the

contested position.

(h) In looking at the shades or marks used to register

votes, the revision committee shall bear in mind that

the will of the voters reflected as votes in the ballots

shall as much as possible be given effect, setting

technicalities

aside.

Furthermore,

the

votes

are

presumed to have been made by the voter and shall be

so

considered

unless

reasons exist to justify their

rejection. However, marks or shades that are less than

50% of the oval shall not be considered as valid votes.

Any issue as to whether a certain mark or shade is

within the threshold shall be determined by using the

PCOS machine, not by human determination.

(i) The rules on the appreciation of the ballots under

Section 211 of the Omnibus Election Code shall apply

suppletorily when appropriate.

(j) There shall be a tally sheet in at least 5 copies, plus

additional

copies

depending

on

the

number

of

additional parties, that shall be used to tally the votes as

they are counted through the use of taras and sticks.

(k) After all the ballots from one ballot box have been

counted,

the

revision

committee

shall

secure

the

contested ballots and complete the recount report for

the precinct. Thereafter, it shall proceed to recount the

votes from the ballots of the next precinct.

(l) In case of multiple revision committees, the recount

shall be done simultaneously.

(m)

In

the

event

that

the

revision

committee

determines that the integrity of the ballots and the

ballot box have not been preserved, as when proof of

tampering or substitution exists, it shall proceed to

instruct the printing of the picture image of the ballots

stored in the data storage device for the precinct. The

court shall provide a non-partisan technical person who

shall conduct the necessary authentication process to

ensure that the data or image stored is genuine and

not a substitute. Only after this determination can the

printed picture image be used for the recount,

Section 7. Preparation and submission of revision

report. – The committee shall prepare and submit to

the court a revision report per precinct stating the

following:

(a) the precinct number;

(b) the date, the place and the time of revision;

(c) the votes of the parties per physical count;

(d)

the

condition

and

the

serial

numbers

of the

following:.

(i) ballot boxes;

(ii) self-locking security metal or plastic seals (inner and

outer) and padlocks of the ballot boxes;

(iii) security envelopes containing the election returns;

and

(iv) numbered paper seal of the envelopes;

(e)

if

required,

the

availability

of

and

other

circumstances attendant to the PCOS machines and

other automated election devices and paraphernalia

used in the revision;

(f) the votes of the parties per the ballot box copy of the

election returns and per the tally sheet/board found

inside the ballot box;

(g) the number of ballots objected to by the parties

indicating therein the exhibit numbers;

(h) the grounds of objections;

(i) the number of stray ballots;

(j) the claims on ballots with their exhibit numbers; and

(k) the entries in the Minutes of Voting and Counting,

particularly:

(i) the number of registered voters;

(ii) the number of voters who actually voted;

(iii) the number of official ballots, together with their

serial numbers, used in the election;

(iv) the number if ballots actually used indicating the

serial numbers of the ballots; and

(v)

the

unused

ballots

together

with

their

serial

numbers.

The revision forms shall be made available prior to the

revision. The per-precinct revision report shall be signed

and certified by the chairperson and by the parties’

revisors, and shall form part of the records of the case.

In addition to the per-precinct revision report, the

revision committee shall also prepare and submit to the

court,

within

three

days

from

termination

of the

revision, a committee report summarizing the data,

votes, ballot objections and claims, and significant

observations made during the revision of ballots from

the

protested

precincts

and

later

from

the

counter-protested precincts, if so conducted based on

the provisions of Section 10 below. Each party furnished

with a copy of the committee report may submit its

comments thereon within a non-extendible period of

three (3) days from notice.

© Compiled By RGL

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