PCOS machine glitches reported early on election day

(Updated 11:30 a.m.) Barely two hours into the 2013 elections, dozens of reports of PCOS machine glitches already came in from across the country.

Even the Tarlac precinct where President Noynoy Aquino was to vote had a PCOS machine that jammed, but was functioning by the time the president arrived at midmorning. Aquino noticeably lined up to vote.

Comelec said the malfunctioning machines are just a tiny fraction of the total. The poll agency is expecting about two percent of the estimated 78,000 PCOS machines to malfunction, or about 1,560 machines.

But Comelec spokesman James Jimenez reminded voters that they can still vote despite a busted PCOS machine in their precinct. The ballots would later be fed into a working PCOS machine to be counted.

During the election preparations, many raised concerns about the condition of the machines after three years of storage. They are the same machines that the Comelec rented for the nation's first automated elections in 2010 and which the government purchased in 2012.

Voting by Villars delayed by PCOS malfunction

In Las Piñas, the Villar couple – Senator Manny Villar and his wife Cynthia who is running for senator – were at the head of the voting line at their precinct Monday morning when the PCOS machine also jammed, delaying the movement of the line for a few minutes. It functioned again after being reset by a Comelec technician.

In Lubao, Pampanga, GMA reporter Lia Mañalac-del Castillo reported at least one PCOS machine that jammed up after only ten voters put in their ballots:


Mañalac-del Castillo said that the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) was setting aside the rejected ballots until further instructions from their executive officer. As of posting time, the BEI in Lubao were still working to have the machine replaced.

Meanwhile, another PCOS machine in Sorsogon malfunctioned and took several tries to get online, according to GMA TV Reporter Sherie Ann Torres:




GMA News' Steve Dailisan also reported similar glitches in Taguig, Manila:




Other incidents

Meanwhile, Radio DZBB's Glen Juego reported an uproar in the polling area of Marikina City after some voters were unable to find their names in the voter's list.

Even before the elections began this morning, GMA senior reporter Jiggy Manicad reported that at least four to five explosions were heard since Sunday night near a checkpoint outside Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, an election hotspot. 

Maguindanao has long been considered an election hotspot where violence is a regular occurrence during polling season. The area is most notoriously remembered as the place where 58 people, including 32 mediamen, were massacred in 2009 in one of the worst cases of election-related violence ever in world history. — TJD/HS, GMA News