Poll Commissioner George Garcia stated on Monday that voters have “no choice” but to leave their votes with members of the Electoral Board if the vote-counting machines (VCMs) in their precincts are malfunctioning.
“Sa ating general instructions, habang kinukumpuni, ginagawa ng ating technician ang mga vote counting machine na nasira ay dapat po lahat ng balota ay kukuhanin sa mga botante at papatas-patasin po yan at pagka natapos na ang pag-ayos ay tsaka po siya ifi-feed sa lahat ng watcher at lahat ng observers na nandoon sa loob ng presinto,” Garcia said.
More than 1,800 VCMs have malfunctioned, according to a tweet by GMA News’ Tina Panganiban-Perez, citing Garcia:
- Paper jam – 940
- Rejected ballots – 606
- VCM scanner – 158
- VCM printer not printing – 87
- Not printing correctly – 76
The Comelec official said all of the issues were “resolved.”
Garcia stated that if the VCMs cannot be serviced by the specialists stationed in the precincts, a replacement will be suggested.
Voters to leave ballots to officials if VCMs malfunction – Comelec exec
If no replacements are available, the Comelec will transport the broken VCMs to their repair centers.
“So in the meantime alangan naman po na habang ang machine ay nasa repair hubs, yung balota ay hawak-hawak ng mga botante. Hindi naman po puwedeng ganon. So kailangan iwanan ng mga botante ‘yan sa kanilang lamesa ng ating mga guro, siyempre nandiyan po ang mga watchers,” Garcia said.
“No choice po tayo doon. Ang importante nakaboto ang mga kababayan natin at ang mga mismong balota ay nakapatas po dyan ima-mass feed po yan. ‘Yan po ang isang pagkakataon na ang resibo ay hindi po maibibigay sa mga botante natin,” he added.
The Comelec official indicated that they have no choice but to keep the precinct limit of 10 people and that voters who have finished shading their ballots should leave the polling site, even if their ballots have not yet been fed into the VCMs.
“Talaga pong kasama ito sa protocol na no choice po tayo kung hindi pagpatas-patasin. Pag naayos na ang mga makina tsaka po uli ipapasok,” he added.
Garcia told voters that poll watchers from various parties and citizen groups would be present during the mass feeding of the ballots.
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