Ballot template soft copy to be deleted after printing to prevent replication

Once all ballots will be printed next week, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will delete the ballot template’s soft copy to prevent its replication. The poll body will be "printing the last ballot on Saturday," Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal told reporters on Tuesday, adding that all PDF (Portable Document Format) files for all ballots will also be deleted. As of Monday, the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City has printed more than 46 million of the more than 50 million ballots needed for the May polls. The printing of the ballots is expected to end early Saturday. The ballot template’s softcopy will be deleted to "assure the public that they would not be producing any additional ballots and nobody else would be able to do so," Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said. "Hindi pwede yan (That cannot happen)... you cannot generate anymore substitute ballots," he said. Larrazabal added that copies of the templates cannot be copied off the printers before they delete it because "it's in the system." "There are procedures intended to ensure na walang lalabas na files (that no files will leak out)," he said. The commissioner likewise said that they will be "de-commissioning" or sealing the five Kodak printers used in the printing of the ballots after all the ballots have been printed. He said the machines will be sealed and signed by Melo and Senator Francis Escudero and Congressman Teddy Boy Locsin, who are co-chairmans of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Poll Automation. Melo also said that he, Escudero, and Locsin are responsible for the "three-segment" password for the laptops to be used in the canvassing in May. "In order to open up, you need the entire password... (each) password is from anywhere from six to eight characters or numbers. Not one of us can open it, we need to be present altogether," he said. Larrazabal said this means that no one can tamper with the canvassing system. "The system is locked... to ensure that there's no modification," he said. Meanwhile, he said that the verification of the ballots will push through about two to three days after printing ends on Saturday. The transfer of the ballots from the NPO to the Foreign Service Mail Distribution Center (FSMDC) in Manila is also ongoing. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV