311 voting machines replaced on election day, says Comelec
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that at least 311 voting machines were replaced on election day, May 12, but the poll body is counting this as a success.
Comelec Chair George Garcia said in a press conference that during the 2022 national elections, around 2,500 voting machines were replaced during the initial hours of polling day.
“For the entire day… the Commission was able to replace 311 machines out of the 16,000 contingency machines that we have,” Garcia said.
Here are the issues that caused the replacements, according to the Comelec chair:
- Whole automatic vote counting (ACM): 15
- Cover: 13
- Scanner: 77
- Screen: 11
- Ballots: 5
- Manual audit: 8
- Operational concern: 2
- Procedural: 1
- Smart card: 1
- Thermal cutter: 60
- Thermal paper: 35
- Thermal printer: 73
- USB device: 10
Several areas need to extend voting due to issues with some ballots. Garcia said they received reports of unclear timing marks, which led to ballots in at least 15 precincts needing to be reprinted.
The prints on these ballots were unclear, Garcia explained. The reprinted ballots will be delivered to these areas on May 13 via military planes.
Garcia added that while the ACMs generally performed well, there were reports of overheating voting machines.
“There was no major issue discovered,” Garcia told reporters.
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