Voters wait in line to mark their ballots in the mid-term election at a polling station in Manila on May 12, 2025.

AFP / Ted Aljibe

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has dismissed as misleading the claim that 17 million voters overvoted during the 2025 midterm elections, saying the figure refers to ballots with overvoted selections, not the number of voters.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia clarified that only around 1.3 million voters out of the 57 million who participated in the elections actually overvoted in the senatorial race.

He added that the oft-cited “17 million overvotes” merely represent the total number of uncounted votes across all senatorial selections due to overvoting.

“The 17 million overvotes refer to the votes not given to 12 senators, whoever they are,” Garcia explained.

A voter may select up to 12 candidates for senator. If they choose more than 12, the vote for that position is considered spoiled.

According to Comelec, this means that the 17 million figure needs to be divided among the 12 available senatorial slots to understand the actual number of overvoting incidents.

“Because of this, the 17 million ‘overvotes’ need to be divided among 12 to get the actual overvote incidents,” the poll body said in Filipino.

Garcia issued the clarification after former Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon questioned the numbers and cited data from the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, which showed a total of 17,028,780 overvotes for senators.

The Comelec also said that overvoting in one race, such as for senators, does not affect the validity of votes cast for other positions on the same ballot.

Despite the issue, the 2025 midterm elections posted the highest voter turnout in Philippine midterm election history, with 82.20% or 57,350,968 out of 69,673,653 registered voters casting their ballots.