MANILA, Philippines — Emojis, hearts and hashtags have no place in the ballots for the May 14 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said they are worried that voters, especially millennials, might put unnecessary markings on the ballots, which will invalidate the votes.

Jimenez said it is not wise to doodle on the ballots as these may be considered as “marked ballots” and declared as stray votes.

“The Comelec’s concern is the novelty of blank paper ballots. To our youth, election means shading the ballots, not writing on a blank ballot. They may feel strange having a blank ballot,” he said.

“Our message, especially to our youth, is do not draw anything on the ballots. Do not sign it with a smiley, do not put anything except the names of your candidates,” he added.

It has been five years since the country last conducted manual elections – in October 2013.

In October 2016, the barangay and SK elections were postponed.

The local and national polls in May 2010 and 2013 were automated.

As a policy, ballots with markings will be scrutinized by the Board of Election Tellers (BETs) to determine if they should be invalidated or not.

Jimenez said the markings could affect the capability of the BETs to read the names of the candidates correctly.

In manual polls, there are many variables that may affect the interpretation of the votes, like legibility of handwriting and cleanliness of the ballot, so voters should not add anything extraneous to the ballots.

DILG officer-in-charge Secretary Eduardo Año said he supports the challenge of Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chair of the house committee on dangerous drugs, for the candidates to sign a covenant declaring willingness to submit to a drug test.

Earlier, Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde made a similar challenge to all barangay and SK poll candidates. – With Janvic Mateo, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Rainier Allan Ronda, Emmanuel Tupas