I get a lot of queries about how our registration system works. It's not perfect, but I offer this brief (yes, believe it or not, brief na ito!) rundown. I grabbed it from comelecAKO and tweaked it a little to fit this site.


We use the continuing system of registration. This means that our election register (or the list of voters) is maintained and continually updated by the election management body - the COMELEC. The list can be maintained locally - the way they do it in the UK, I think; or nationally - as in Australia and, last I heard, Canada.

The short version ... this is how we do it:

When a qualified citizen applies for registration, his application is filed before the Election Officer of the city or municipality where the citizen resides. This application is then brought before the Election Registration Board - the ERB. The ERB then receives objections to the application at a duly publicized hearing. When I say duly publicized, I mean that notices of the hearing are furnished the applicant himself, the heads or representatives of political parties, and other accredited groups which actively participate in the electoral process.

Well, at least in theory.

In practice, there are so many political parties that not all are given notice; those that are given notices typically ignore them; and most "accredited groups " are usually moribund when there are no elections. As a result, most ERB notices languish unnoticed (get it? notices, unnoticed?) and ERB hearings are not quite as dynamic as they were designed to be.

In any case, at an ERB hearing, evidence for or against the applicant is received and ruled upon. In those cases where an objection is raised, the applicant is required to appear before the ERB and present his evidence in support of his application. These objections typically challenge the applicant's right to be a voter (i.e., the applicant is alleged to be underage, or not a citizen, or is somehow disqualified); or his right to vote where he is proposing to vote (i.e., the applicant is alleged not to be residing where he says he is, or that he lacks the residency requirement).

Anyone can challenge another person's right to vote, but the challenge must be in writing and under oath. This challenge right is actually a very powerful tool for keeping the list clean. But it hasn't received a lot of attention lately. Personally, I think people would just rather not get involved.

Once the ERB comes out with its ruling, the registration process is complete.

Well, almost.

One last remedy remains: Exclusion and Inclusion. This is where people who have been shut out of the list of voters by the ERB can ask the Metropolitan Trial Courts to include them anyway (inclusion), and where people can ask the MTC to remove certain names from the list (exclusion). This process is not time-bound, i.e., the law prescribes no proper time for filing it, except to say that all petitions for inclusion or exclusion must be resolved within 10 days from filing. What this means is that petitions for inclusion or exclusion can be filed as late as the day before elections and that even on election day itself, the courts can still order the inclusion of voters in the lists.

So where does modernization come into the picture?

The thing with the continuing list system is that it is very difficult to keep clean. Keeping the list clean means periodically updating it by removing the names of those who have died or who have otherwise lost their right to vote (i.e., convicted felons, and including people who have lost their right to vote in a particular place because they changed residences or have moved away permanently), and by including the names of people who have newly registered or have otherwise newly reacquired their right to vote (i.e., pardonees). The primary updating modality is still coordination with related agencies such as the civil registry (for deaths), and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (for convicts, and pardonees).

Then, of course, we have multiple registrants.

Multiple registrants are those who - whether innocently or maliciously - have entered the registration system more than once. Innocent multiple registrants are usually those who have transferred residences and registered in the city or municipality they transferred to without telling the election officer that they used to be registered elsewhere. In the past, this error was pretty easy to let slip because communication between election officers was pretty imperfect.

Today, we provide election officers with an updated national list of voters. This helps them determine whether a person applying for registration is already registered elsewhere. Hopefully this will effectively cut down on innocent multiple registrants.

Malicious multiple registrants are another species of animal entirely. These people change their names, their appearances, their birthdates - essentially making up whole new identities - just to be able to register more than once. The reason, naturally, is that multiple registrations will allow them to vote more than once - a type of retail fraud we call 'flying voting.'

This is where we introduce biometric technology. Biometrics is the latest technology that allows us to identify people by means of their unique fingerprints, facial features, and signature. When you register, your biometrics will be recorded (we call it 'captured') by COMELEC technicians. Your fingerprints will be taken by a state-of-the-art fingerprint scanner, your picture will be taken by a digital camera and automatically stored on COMELEC computers, and your signature will be taken when you sign on a pressure sensitive signature pad. Once this process is completed, your name in the COMELEC computer database will have your picture, your signature, and your fingerprints. The next time someone uses your name to register, their fingerprints won't match yours and they won't be able to register! This will help protect your identity from identity-thieves and help the COMELEC keep the list of voters clean and accurate.



With the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) - CSI fans hear this word often whenever the investigators need to find out whose fingerprint they have - that the COMELEC hopes to procure in the near future, we will be able to more effectively purge the list of multiple registrants.

Registration Anywhere

Registration anywhere is one of the things that make us drool whenever we visit foreign countries to learn about their election administration. In those countries, electors can register at hardware outlets (like ACE), convenience stores (like 7-11s), or at other government agencies.

This is possible because the registration system in those countries is keyed in to fully functional e-government infrastructure and either a strong census backbone; a strong residence tracking system; or a national ID system. People who register at these remote locations (remote as in not directly with the election management body) enter their personal information into the system and the system pretty much takes care of verifying their identities based on any number of relevant databases. As you can probably imagine, these identification and identity-verification operations happen very quickly, making it possible for people to register on election day itself.

Unless we have this strong infrastructure in place, I think we have very little hope of achieving the 'register-anywhere' paradigm. Heck, I even heard that a good 85% or more of all internet connections in this country are dial-up, so its probably a stretch to even imagine that we are anywhere close. But it is a good idea, though. And a goal worth pursuing. It's just that, it'll require a whole lot of committment from a lot of other agencies, not just the COMELEC.

Census and the DILG should beef up their database and database updating procedures and grant access to the COMELEC; BJMP, the DOJ, and other law enforcement agencies should create and improve their databases and grant access to the COMELEC; Government agencies with front-line electronic interfaces (such as SSS and GSIS) should allow the inclusion of COMELEC specific fields in their interfaces; Other agencies that maintain databases should likewise include COMELEC specific fields in their application forms; and so on and so forth.