The printing of over 4 million voting ballots more than is strictly necessary is standard practice to ensure backups for all voting units, the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) said on Monday.
On May 1, news agencies, including Voice Online and Manager Online, reported that Election Commission Secretary-General Sawang Boonmee explained that the surplus was not unusual. This year's election has over 52 million eligible voters; therefore, the Commission printed 57 million ballots—including 4 million extra--to ensure there are backups in place.
The EC said it would distribute ballots in books to 95,000 voting units. Each voting unit will receive an extra book. This accounts for 2 million of the extra ballots.
The remaining 2 million are reserved for approximately ten polling station committee members in each station. These officials are allowed to register to vote in their designated polling stations.
The Secretary-General of the EC said there are measures in place to monitor and trace the use of the ballots, so the public should not worry about the issue
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