Comelec receives more vote counting machines

140,000 TO GO A Commission on Elections official inventories a newly made automatic counting machine in Biñan City in Laguna. —Comelec photo

MANILA, Philippines — Officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), led by Chair George Erwin Garcia, received on Saturday the second batch of 8,640 newly manufactured automatic counting machines (ACM) delivered to the poll body’s warehouse in Biñan City, Laguna.

Garcia said the supplier, Miru Systems Col Ltd., Comelec’s new automated election system service provider, had gone beyond its target to deliver 20,000 machines by end-August to almost 25,000 ACMs.

He said Miru has also delivered 100 percent of the servers, printers and laptops that will be used in canvassing the votes.

READ: Comelec expects 20,000 voting machines by August

“There is no compromise when it comes to the quality of those being delivered to us,” Garcia said in a press briefing after overseeing the inspection of items received at at warehouse.

The delivery also includes the corresponding privacy screens, thermal paper rolls, devices to help disabled voters, paper seals, power cords, and more.

Starlink satellites, meant to support the transmission of votes, have also been delivered to the warehouse.

Open book

Garcia said if any damage is detected from even by initial visual inspection, the Comelec physical and quantity verification committee will return the items for immediate replacement.

He said inspectors at the warehouse were so strict that they rejected several boxes of thermal paper rolls that were crumpled during the delivery.

The delivery was also witnessed by representatives of several election watchdogs such as the National Movement for Free Elections, Parish Pastoral Council of Responsible Voting, and Legal Network for Truthful Elections.

“We laud the efforts of Comelec to make this process transparent. We hope that this transparency will not stop here, and continue up until the elections. ” Lente junior project associate Alexa Yadao said.

The Comelec chief said that this September, the hardware acceptance tests and laboratory testing will be run to verify each item one by one.

The ACM technology will also be subject to a source code review in October, to be followed by certification by an international body and the Department of Science and Technology.

Garcia also said some 2,000 ACMs will be deployed—one each for every city and municipality—for a “road show” to demonstrate the devices starting November up to January next year, he said.

Warehouse

He said Comelec expects 30,000 ACMs from September to November, with the rest of the 110,000 arriving by the end of the year.

On Tuesday, Comelec, Miru and the National Printing Office are set to sign a contract for two new printing machines, worth P600 million, brought from Germany by Miru which will be used for 73 million ballots for the midterm elections and three million for the Bangsamoro elections.

“We have been working hard to ensure we fulfill our duty to the Filipino voters, and expect to meet all delivery milestones on time,” Ken Cho, Miru vice president for overseas sales, said in a statement.

The new Comelec warehouse consists of three floors to thoroughly inspect and store the delivered election peripherals and machines. There is strict security both inside the facilities and within the grounds, with assigned personnel in each area.

The poll body, however, still made sure operations are made transparent to the public, through a designated viewing deck for mediamen and election watchdogs to monitor the facilities.