Manual audit of votes a 99.9% match
INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA — The concluded random manual audit of votes in the May 9, 2022 elections showed a 99.9-percent match between the ballots and the count reported by vote-counting machines, said the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Comelec Commissioner in charge Aimee Ferolino said the 34-day random manual audit conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority and civic groups bolstered the accuracy of the May 9 polls.
“I am happy to report that we finished ahead of schedule and that our accuracy rate as of 4 p.m. yesterday (June 19) stands at 99.95928 percent,” Ferolino announced during the closing ceremony at Diamond Hotel on Monday.
The automated elections law (Republic Act No. 8436 amended by RA 9369) mandated a random manual audit within 45 days after the elections to check the accuracy of the vote-counting machines.
The audit started on May 11 and ended on June 19.
A total of 757 clustered precincts were randomly selected out of the total 106,174 polling precincts nationwide, with one precinct selected from every legislative district.
The ballot boxes from all 757 selected precincts were retrieved to manually verify the ballots against the election returns reported by the vote-counting machines.
The audit covered the votes for president, vice president, senator, party list, district representative, and mayor.
Out of the 757 ballot boxes, however, only 746 ballot boxes were audited, Ferolino said.
Of the 11 ballot boxes that were not audited, three were mislabeled, six had wet or torn ballots, and two did not have printed or online election returns, she said.
Ferolino said 27 ballot boxes are still undergoing “further verification.”
Groups that participated in the audit were the Legal Network for Truthful Elections, Namfrel, Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Information Systems Audit and Control Association, and the Philippine Society of Public Health Professionals.
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