The country’s 6.3 million deactivated voters will soon be able to apply for reactivation online, Commissioner Rowena Guanzon of the Commission on Elections said Wednesday, August 11.
Reactivation of voters who failed to vote in two consecutive elections will be allowed through email, she said.
“This month 6.3 million voters were deactivated but their biometrics are still in the database of the Commission on Elections, hence they need not apply for reactivation in person,” she said.
This will benefit a least one million senior citizens and persons with disabilities, and those who are unable to go to the Comelec offices because they have work, she said.
The COMELEC will issue the guidelines for the online reactivation of the voters’ registration soon, Guanzon said.
The identity of the applicant can be verified with their records in the system, she said.
The applicant will be given an appointment to take an oath before an election officer stating that he or she is one and the same person as the one on the deactivated list via online video, she said.
Republic Act 8189 or the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996 allows the Comelec to remove from the list of voters those who failed to vote in two consecutive elections.
About 700,000 other deactivated voters had already personally gone to the Comelec to reactivate their registration, she said.*