Malfunctioning VRVM, VCM delays voting in many Iloilo City precincts

ILOILO CITY — Malfunctioning Voter Registration Verification Machines (VRVM) delayed the start of voting in many areas in Iloilo City amid a high turnout of voters.

Iloilo City election assistant Jonathan Sayno said they received many reports of malfunction VRVMs and some Vote Counting Machines (VCM) which prompted members of the board of election inspectors to resort to manual verification of registered voters.

Iloilo is among the 14 areas where the use of the VRM is being pilot tested.

The VRVM is meant to hasten the verification of voter registration. Instead of a manual search from the list of registered voters, a voter’s identity can be verified through the fingerprint scan.

Sayno said the VRVMs were functional during the final testing day on May 10 but many of the machines could not verify the voter’s identity on Monday.

“Voting will continue because the polling officials can still use the manual verification using the Election Day Computerized Voters List,” he told the INQUIRER.

In cases where the VCM malfunctioned, voters could still vote and the filled-up ballots would be stored until the machine becomes functional, he added.