400-600 VCMs malfunctioned, but still within range — Comelec spox

The Commission on Elections said Monday around 400 to 600 vote counting machines have encountered issues based on their monitoring.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the number of VCMs that malfunctioned is still “within their range” as there are 85,700 units all over the country in operation.

“Within the range of what is expected in terms of sa dami ng makina. I don’t think na nalalayo tayo sa expected range o na lumalabas tayo sa expected range,” he said, without mentioning the ceiling. 

He added the concerns have also been addressed.

“We understand that the perception is there are a lot of VCMs that have malfunctioned right now, the estimate is around 400 to 600 VCMs out of 85,700 plus VCMs that are in operation. It could be bigger, it could be smaller, I’m not going on any official report, simply reports from monitors in the field,” said Jimenez.

He admitted that the incidents of malfunctioning VCMs seemed jarring because there were fewer incidents during the 2016 elections.

“Back then (in 2016) the machines were brand new. I cannot say for a fact that that is a factor  but again that is a fact. If they were brand new at the time, everything is bundled into that one lease so probably that could be an issue as well,” he said.

The Commission on Elections purchased the VCMs from Smartmatic.

Jimenez said they will know for sure the cause of the malfunctions when they start analyzing the VCMs after elections.

“Malalaman natin ‘yan when we analyze the different failures,” he said.

He added that Comelec has 9,000 contingency units to replace VCMs that malfunctioned.

Asked on his initial assessment on the polls, Jimenez said it’s a mix of good and bad.

“It’s been a checkered day, it’s a mixed bag. Maraming nakaboto that are reporting very, very fast processes, very speedy resolution of their voting experience. Marami rin namang nagrereklamo na nagkaproblema sila,” he said.

“Ang concern natin dito is those who are complaining get amplified in their complaints so we are being very careful before we actually say that things are going terribly or things are going well,” he added.

He said what is important is the problems have been addressed.

“Right now. we see that there are problems and the problems are being solved. Admittedly, there seemed to be a lot of problems but so far we have not met an unsolvable problem which means, basically, that everything that is happening normally. It is not happening perfectly but it is happening within the range of expectations: na merong problema, nasosolusyunan,” he said. — RSJ, GMA News