The Commission on Elections (Comelec) wanted to make sure that everyone understands how online voting works, especially after some overseas Filipino voters said they noticed their votes changing after voting online for the 2025 elections.
On Monday, Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia explained that the names voters saw after casting their ballots online were not the names of the candidates they voted for. Instead, those names were part of a secret code, called “encrypted scripts.”
Garcia said that voters could check their ballots after voting, but only after the voting period ends on May 12, 2025, at 7 p.m. (Philippine time). At that point, the ballots will be printed by the embassies, and the voters can check the printed version.
He explained how the process works: “When voters cast their vote, they’ll see the ballot and be asked if they’re sure they want to vote. After they press ‘yes,’ the ballot will disappear. There will be a QR code. But when voters press the QR code, the names of the candidates they voted for won’t appear. Instead, machine-readable codes will show up.”
He added, “Sometimes voters see names on the screen, but that’s not who they voted for. Those are just codes. We’re not showing the names of the candidates to protect voters from things like vote-buying.”
The online voting for Filipinos overseas started on Sunday, April 13, 2025, and it will go on for a month. Out of 90 diplomatic posts, 77 are using the new internet voting system. The rest will use traditional voting machines.
However, some overseas voters said on social media that they were confused because after scanning the QR code, it looked like their votes were changed. Garcia reassured them, saying, “Once you vote, the system encrypts your vote. Even if you copy the encrypted code and check it later, it won’t change. This is how we make sure your vote stays safe.”
He also explained that the encryption is meant to protect the votes from being used in vote-buying. “Voters can check their ballots later when the posts print them after the voting ends. They’ll see the original ballots they cast.”
Garcia also mentioned that there are 69.6 million registered voters for the May 2025 elections, with 1.2 million of them living abroad. So far, about 55,000 overseas voters have enrolled in the online voting system.
The Comelec hopes for a 50% voter turnout this year, which is better than the 40.59% turnout in the 2022 elections. Garcia said, “We hope people will give online voting a chance. We don’t want anyone to miss out on voting. This is a great opportunity for us to vote using the internet. So, why not take advantage of it?”
