EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE)
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES )
Second Regular Session )
E-FILED
nil Tfrr . Oct 05 2020
2:15 p.m.
SENATE
S.B, [sjo. 1870
Introduced by SENATOR IMEE R. MARCOS
AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR A SYSTEM OF POSTAL VOTING
BY SENIOR CITIZENS, PREGNANT WOMEN, PERSONS WITH
DISABILITIES, AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:
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SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Voting by Mail Act."
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - The State shall ensure that senior citizens,
pregnant women, persons with disabilities and indigenous peoples are able to exercise
their right to political participation without restrictions. To this end, the State shall
design systems and procedures that will enable them to vote via post.
SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. - As used in this Act, the term:
a. Commission refers to the Commission on Elections.
b. Postal voting refers to a mode of voting where mailing packets, containing the
official ballots and other election paraphernalia, are sent directly to senior
voters.
c. Senior Citizens refer to qualified voters who are sixty (60) years or older.
d. Persons with Disabilities refer to qualified voters who are suffering from
restriction of different abilities, as a result of a mental, physical or sensory
impairment, to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered
normal for a human being;
e. Indigenous peoples refer to qualified voters belonging to a group of people or
homogenous societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others, who
have continuously lived as organized community on communally bounded and
defined territory, and who have, under claims of ownership since time
immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such territories, sharing common
bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, or
who have, through resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of
colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures, became historically
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