VCMs in Corazon Aquino Elementary School overheat and shut down

Two of the vote counting machines (VCMs) at the President Corazon C. Aquino Elementary School overheated and shut down on Monday afternoon, according to the school's Department of Education Supervising Official Leonora Jusay.

According to Jusay, the Commission on Elections has already investigated the situation and is currently fixing the machines.

#Eleksyon2019: Ilang VCM sa President Corazon Aquino Elementary School sa Brgy. Batasan Hills, Quezon City, nag-o-overheat na. Kailangang i-shutdown muna para makarekober at magamit muli. | via @allangatus pic.twitter.com/n1frOo8RIs

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) May 13, 2019

Lovelle Cap-Atan, one of the support staff at the polling place, said they were instructed to always have an electric fan directly pointed at the machine should it suddenly overheat.

When a VCM shuts down however, the registered voters who have already finished filling up their ballots are given the choice to either wait until the machine is fixed so they can insert their ballots in the machine themselves, or trust the staff to do it for them later on, said Cap-Atan.

Citizens have complained that this could be a source of cheating during the elections as most people opt to just leave and entrust their ballots to the staff present. —KG, GMA News