‘Minor’ glitches mar final PCOS testing

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The final testing and sealing (FTS) of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines conducted Monday encountered only a few “glitches” which can all be fixed before Election Day, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.

“Our analysis so far is that there are small glitches which don’t affect the count [of the PCOS],” chairman Sixto Brillantes told reporters.

“The manual audit after the voting is correct,” he said.

Brillantes said that the news reports of discrepancies in the counting between manual and automated were only one or two and that there was no big difference.

“[Manual count and automated count] will never completely match because manual is based on human appreciation while the PCOS is machine appreciation,” Brillantes said.

When told about some ballots that were counted even if an “x” was written on the oval, Brillantes said that it would be counted as long as it reached the threshold amount configured in the PCOS.

In the 2010 elections the threshold was set at 50 percent while in this year’s elections it was set at less than 50 percent, Brillantes said.

He however refused to say what the actual threshold is because he wants to emphasize to the voters to fully shade the ovals in the ballot.

Regarding some reports that machines failed to start, Brillantes said that was normal and expected during the final testing.

“So far, out of so many thousands, only a few hundred had errors,” Brillantes said.

“We can solve them within the next few days,” he said.