The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said that the 2022 Philippine national election’s vote transmission had been the fastest compared to previous polls in a press briefing, May 10.
Five hours after the election officially ended on May 9, COMELEC reported that more than 80,000 out of over 106,000 vote-counting machines (VCMs) had already transmitted votes from precincts.
COMELEC said this is record-breaking compared to 2010 when it took them 11 hours to transmit 70% of the votes, and to 2016 when they could only reach the 80% mark after six hours.
“It’s [the fast transmission of votes] because of the improved and upgraded equipment and system,” COMELEC commissioner George Garcia said.
COMELEC commissioner Marlon Casquejo had a similar notion and added that this year’s fast transmission of votes was only possible because of the comprehensive tests and upgrades they made, especially with the VCMs’ transmission package.
“We conducted [an] extensive study of our transmission mode after the 2019 elections,” Casquejo said, explaining that they also added more features to the transmission.
However, some voters couldn’t help but question the Commission’s claim after numerous voters encountered difficulties with the VCMs, stalling them from feeding their ballots to the said machines.
Malfunctions across the country
Kontra Daya reported that, although the election morning has not yet passed, approximately 1,800 VCMs have already jammed, rejected ballots, and had problems with scanners and printers.
The amount of VCM breakdowns has doubled since the 2016 and 2019 elections, where only 801 and 961 machines malfunctioned, respectively.
Vice President Leni Robredo’s spokesperson and University of the Philippines law professor Barry Gutierrez spoke of his annoyance in a tweet.
“I was in line to vote at 5:30 a.m. Now they're telling us may problema daw sa VCM and we should just come back. Walang oras na binigay. Ano na ito COMELEC?” Gutierrez tweeted.
Aware that the issues were not isolated, Gutierrez also called out to the Commission, stating in another tweet, “COMELEC madami daw ganitong insidente, hope you are already doing something to address [the issue].”
In Bauan Technical Highschool in Batangas, voters were stuck for two hours when a precinct’s VCM stopped accepting ballots.
Election officer Leni Masaoy from the North Central Elementary School in Binalonan, Pangasinan said in an interview with ABS-CBN that after accepting the 11th ballot, "Nagkaroon ng paper jam kaya hindi na niya kinakain ’yung mga balota. Ilang beses namin trinoubleshoot, ni-report na rin sa aming technician pero wala na talaga."
Nicky Felipe, a voter in Sauyo Elementary School in Novaliches, Quezon City, said that around 7 a.m, the VCM’s SD card in their precinct was already malfunctioning, with their electoral board prompting them to do manual voting instead.
“Sinabi niyang [staff] mag-manual voting na lang kami. Magsasagot daw kami ng balota, tapos sila ang magfe-feed sa machine once dumating ang bagong SD card,” Felipe said in an interview with Rappler.
He further added, “Humahaba na ang pila at inip na ang tao… isa kami sa mga unang batch ng boboto sa cluster namin. Bakit corrupted agad?”
Voters fearing for their votes
COMELEC provided two options for voters to address the issue: they could either sign a waiver and give their ballots to the electoral board, who will conduct a batch feeding once a replacement arrives, or wait and feed their ballots personally.
However, voters were not the most trusting of the electoral board, as some shared on Twitter that they would rather wait and oversee the feeding of their ballots.
“Guys we are not leaving. We will wait for the VCM to be able to read our votes. We do not know each other but the people in this classroom are all united. Ready to wait even if it takes all day,” Twitter user @kittyyuh said in her tweet.
Furthermore, even though COMELEC has already explained how they achieved the quick transmitting of votes from precincts to COMELEC through developing their transmission packages, voters still found the quick process suspicious.
First-time voter and student activist Paulene Abarca echoed these suspicions.
“Nakakagulat kasi nu’ng time na 70% na ’yung transmitted votes, may mga ’di pa nakakaboto sa presinto nila [dahil sa VCMs],” she said, “With that itself, nakakapagtaka na.”
Abarca also demanded the COMELEC to admit that they had their shortcomings regarding their responsibility to the VCMs.
She said, “Imbis na nililinlang niyo ang taumbayan na successful ang election, aminin n’yo na nagkulang pa din kayo sa kabila ng malaking budget at mahabang panahon n’yo kasi kung successful talaga, hindi 1,800 na VCMs ang masisira in contrast sa dami ng VCMs na nasira in the past elections.”
Even renowned GMA News anchor Mel Tiangco voiced her concerns about VCMs on live television the night of the election.
“S’yempre, ’yung gano’ng mga aberya, bagaman tingin ng mga taga-COMELEC eh maliit na bagay o isang bagay na hindi ganoong makaka-apketo sa sitwasyon natin sa botohan, hindi mo mai-aalis eh,” the anchor said. “Hindi mo maiaalis ’yon eh — pagdududahan eh.”
No anomalies to worry about
COMELEC, however, said that despite the questionable number of malfunctions and quick transmission of votes, no anomaly occurred during the counting.
“Wala pong na-disenfranchise despite the isolated issues on VCMs and the SD cards,” COMELEC acting spokesman Rex Laudiangco said in their press briefing a day after the election.
Casquejo also said that the number of VCMs that malfunctioned on the election day was minimal compared to the previous elections.
“Masyadong maliit… if you try to compute, 915 VCM malfunctions, multiply it by average of 500 per registered voters, maliit lang ’yun as compared to the total number of 64 million plus registered voters,” Casquejo said.
“Over 106,000 VCMs ito, so out of that only 900 plus ’yung pumalpak,” he added, “What’s important is hindi siya significant kumpara noong 2019.”
However, this statement contradicted Kontra Daya’s data of approximately 1,800 machine breakdowns and COMELEC’s report of fixing 940 jammed VCMs, 606 that were rejecting ballots, 158 that had problems with the scanners, 87 that weren’t printing, and 76 that had malfunctioning printers by 10 a.m on election day.
Still, the Commission hopes to replace the aging machines, which are already close to 9 years old and were also used in the 2016 national elections after succeeding the precinct count optical scan or PCOS machines, by the 2025 midterm elections.
“I think this is the last dance of our VCMs,” Casquejo said. “We will no longer use it in the 2025 elections.”
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