IT’S hardly surprising that the most common election-related concern raised by the public has to do with their voter identification cards. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) voter ID is considered a government-issued form of identification that enjoys nearly universal acceptability. A good number of overseas-employment agencies use it, some scholarship organizations ask for it and all government agencies honor it. Some banks even require it for opening savings accounts. In fact, about the only thing that the voter ID isn’t a requirement for is voting.
It cannot be denied that there is a considerable demand for voter IDs. Unfortunately, this demand is coupled with several myths that tend to fuel unrealistic expectations and, consequently, breed dissatisfaction.
Let’s set a few of those straight.
Myth 1: You can get a voter ID immediately—or, at least, soon—after you file your application for registration.
To put it as bluntly as possible: No, you cannot. Your application for registration has to pass through a process of verification and approval by the Election Registration Board (ERB) every quarter. After your application has been approved, your records will go to the poll body’s main office in Manila for processing.
This means that your application will be checked for completeness and accuracy of the information that needs to go into your ID. More important, the biometric information contained in your application will be checked against our database of more than 52 million other registered voters, to make sure that you’re not a potential flying voter. This is a process that is separate from the processing done by the ERB, so it will add to the waiting time. Once your ID is approved for printing, your records will be put in the printing queue, and it’s first in-first out.
Once your ID is printed, the entire batch of IDs that were printed together with yours has to be verified. Once the 100-percent verification is completed, only then will the ID be shipped back to the local Comelec office.
With all of those steps needing to be completed successfully, it can take up to a year for you to get your voter ID. Remember, though, that this sort of multistep process just goes to ensuring that the ID is secure and cannot be used by anyone who might want to steal your identity in order to commit electoral fraud.
Myth 2: You filed your application for registration at the same time as your friend or family member. This means that you both should get your voter IDs at the same time.
Unfortunately, this is not true. Each application for registration is checked and verified separately from all the others, and, so, it might happen that your application form may successfully hurdle all verification checks because it is completely accurate, but your friend’s application form might not, because there are issues with it.
Myth 3: Your voter ID should be delivered to my address, or to your barangay.
As a matter of policy, voter IDs are released to their owners only at the Comelec office where they filed their applications for registration. This means that the IDs are not put in the mail or turned over to barangay officials for distribution.
The election officer posts the names of the registered voters whose voters IDs are available for claiming. The registered voter is expected to check this list periodically to find out whether his or her ID has arrived. And when it does, the ID can be claimed either by the owner himself or himself, or by his or her authorized representative. The representative, however, must first present a notarized authorization letter from the ID owner.
Myth 4: You have to pay a “releasing fee” in order to get your voter ID.
The voter ID is free of charge, and is already laminated upon release. No fee should be charged by the local Comelec office to the voter. However, ID reprints due to loss or damage are, in fact, charged a fee of P100. Naturally, an official receipt must be issued for the payment.
Myth 5: You can still claim your voter ID, even if you haven’t voted in two or more consecutive elections.
Voter IDs are issued only to voters on the active-voter list. Anyone who has failed to vote in two or more consecutive elections will be removed from that list and end up on the list of deactivated voters. The solution, simply enough, is to just apply for a reactivation of your voter-registration status.
On a related note, the IDs of voters with pending applications for correction of entries in the registration record, due to transfers of residence, or a change of name or civil status, will no longer be issued. Instead, a new voter ID card reflecting the voter’s updated information will be issued.
James Jimenez is the spokesman of the Commission on Elections.