But here’s a case of dagdag (vote-padding) where the one being blamed is an adding machine.
Documents showed that the statements of votes in 24 precincts here were wrongly totaled for candidate Restituto Albalos, jacking up his votes by 1,307 and catapulting him to eighth place in the race for 10 city council seats.
Consequently, he was among the winning bets proclaimed by the board of canvassers.
"There was machine error," city election officer Joel Gines said when his attention was called a few days after the proclamation.
Albalos’ proclamation sparked a controversy here after the opposition’s re-electionist candidate George Villanueva, who was dislodged from the winning column as a result of the anomaly, cried foul and showed Namfrel records showing him on 10th place and supposed eighth placer Albalos at 11th.
One good thing going here though was that Gines, who also chaired the board, promptly moved to have the discrepancy corrected.
Gines has urged the Commission on Elections’ central office in Manila to authorize him to reconvene the city board of canvassers "to make the necessary corrections and to partially annul the proclamation" it earlier made.
In an urgent motion, Gines told Commissioner Resurreccion Borra, commissioner-in-charge of Region 1 (Ilocos), that "the errors/mistakes were due to or by reason of machine error."
He cleared tabulators of the anomaly, adding, "If it is because of human error or mistake, the same came about as an honest mistake and without intention to defraud or deceive."
An adding machine was used in summing up the votes garnered by each candidate as reflected in the statements of votes from the different precincts in Vigan’s 34 barangays.
In the questioned 24 precincts, Albalos was credited with 2,662 votes, instead of 1,355 votes only, Gines said.
In his motion, Gines said he had checked the statements of votes, and is now seeking partial annulment of the proclamation of councilors-elect from the eighth to 10th positions.
He moved to correct the ranking of winning candidates with Villanueva, who garnered 7,588 votes, getting the 10th or last slot. Albalos slid to 11th place with a final tally of 7,023 votes.
With Albalos out, ninth placer Felix Aninag should move up to eighth and 10th placer Benjos Versoza should get the ninth slot, Gines said.
He said he is expecting Borra to allow him to reconvene the board of canvassers shortly and correct the anomaly.