THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) printed over 73 million ballots for the National and Local Elections (NLE) and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) Parliamentary Elections (BPE).
But what happens to the 73 million ballots after the polls?
According to Comelec 7 Director Francisco Pobe in a news forum on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, the ballots will be disposed after storing them for a certain amount of time at the Comelec office in case any need for their use arises, such as protests filed against election results.
Pobe explained the ballots will be stored at the Comelec warehouse for up to 10 years, or up to three election cycles.
After which, Pobe explained these will be bidded out to those who are interested in ballot papers such as scrap paper companies. Pobe further explained that the bidding will be done at the Comelec Central Office in Manila.
Aside from shredding and incinerating, given that the ballots are paper themselves, they will be recycled.
“It will become useless for any other purpose,” Pobe said, adding that the disposal of the ballots will be subject to Commission on Audit regulations.
In the recent May 2025 polls, a total of 68,421,000 ballots were printed for the NLE and 2.3 million for the BPE. Almost 12,000 were for overseas voting, 100,000 for local absentee voters and one million for test ballots.
Printed on the ballot were the names of some 44,000 candidates vying for at least 18,121 positions from senatorial to municipal/city councilors throughout the country. / JPS