The Commission on Elections (Comelec) deleted the ballot faces that were used for the 2022 national and local elections from the servers of the National Printing Office (NPO).
Comelec Education and Information Department Director James Jimenez said the removal was held at the NPO in the presence of political parties, citizens’ arm groups, members of the media, and other stakeholders.
“Now, we’re at the penultimate stage of our operations here at the NPO. From here, we need to pull out of the NPO because we have done our duty here at the Comelec,” he said.
The May 9, 2022 national and local elections have officially ended, Jimenez said, adding “and in order to do that, one of the last things we need is to remove Comelec data from the NPO servers.”
Jimenez said that this was done so the NPO can redirect their machines to service other projects.
“Again, this is the ultimate step, after this step, we remove the information from the NPO, and we will pull out,” he added.
Aside from the “precinct-specific” ballots used for the 2022 elections in the country, Jimenez said the Comelec will also wipe out the ones that were used for their roadshow, the test ballots, as well as the ballots which were used for the overseas voting.
However, the Comelec official said it will keep backup copies of the ballot face database.