A vote counting machine. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Some 1,800 vote counting machines (VCMs) have malfunctioned, but the issues have already been resolved, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner George Garcia said Monday.
According to Garcia, the following are the common issues that the VCMs encountered:
Paper jam – 940 VCMs
Rejected ballots – 606 VCMs
VCM scanner – 158 VCMs
VCM printer not printing – 87 VCMs
Not printing properly – 76 VCMs
Garcia said that the affected VCMs were repaired by technicians.
“Hindi po pinalitan. Naayos ng mga technicians. 10 pa lang ang replaced,” he responded when asked if the faulty machines were replaced.
(Not replaced. Our technicians repaired it. Only 10 were replaced.)
Comelec earlier said that it has set aside 1,100 VCMs for contingency, should any VCM malfunction on election day and its technicians could not repair it.
Comelec acting spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said that voting will proceed despite issues on the VCMs and power outages.
He explained that voters can fill up the ballots while VCMs are under repair. The ballots can be left at the polling precinct which will then be fed to the machine with the presence of watchers and accredited citizens’ arm.