Voting in Kipadawan slows down over lack of shading pens, problematic VCMs

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines — The balloting in this city of 84,000 registered voters hit a snag when the specialized pens needed to shade ballots sent here did not work and over some problematic vote counting machines (VCMs).

The Commission on Elections in this city decided to instead use the old shading pens that were left over from the 2016 elections.

But since there were only 660 old pens from the last elections, only six pens could be allocated to each of the city’s 110 clustered precincts, according to Acting City Election Supervisor Josephine Macapas.

This means that only six people at a time could be allowed inside every voting precinct in the city, said Macapas.

Macapas said they found out during the final testing and sealing of vote counting machines that the new pens were not suited for use in the ballots after the ballots shaded by these pens were rejected by the VCMs.

Macapas admitted this would slow down the voting process.

“This is beyond our control. But we will make sure that elections will be done smoothly,” Macapas added.

Voting precincts opened at 6 a.m. but in Precinct 111A in Barangay Balabag, it opened at nearly 8 a.m. and people who had formed long lines could not cast their votes since the VCM in the precinct was not working.