19 VCMs in Cebu City ‘faulty’ on election day

The Vote Counting Machine for clustered precinct 757 in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City was brought back to its assigned precinct after undergoing repair that lasted for about three hours. The VCM malfunctioned shortly after voting started at 6 a.m. on Monday, May 9, 2022. CDN Digital photo | Delta Letigio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Election day in Cebu City was not as smooth sailing as the Commission on Election (Comelec) expected with Vote- Counting Machines (VCMs) in need of repair or replacement causing hiccups in the cluster precincts.

A total of 19 VCMs, 12 in the South District and 7 in the North District were reported faulty and were either replaced or repaired at the Central Hub.

Still, Lawyer Edwin Cadungog, the chairman of the Canvassing Board, said that all these machines were fixed or replaced before the election ended at 7 pm on Monday, May 9, 2022.

“All in all, wala kaabot baynte. Na addressed na ni tanan nga naay mga deperensa,” said Cadungog.

Some polling personnel had to shake, smack, and manually fix paper jams just so ballots could be fed into the machines.

The faulty VCMs caused delays in the voting centers ending up in long lines even beyond 7 p.m. when voting centers closed.

However, all those within the school compound were still allowed to vote beyond 7 p.m. but their names were listed ahead of time by polling personnel.

Some voting centers finished the voting beyond 9 p.m. causing a delay in the transmission of the votes to the Board of Canvassers (BOCs).

The transmission has slowly picked up at around 10:30 p.m. with votes from many of the barangays already being transmitted to the main canvassing server.

Votes from Barangays San Antonio, Sta. Cruz, Sto. Niño, Cambinocot, Cogon Ramos, Day-as, Ermita (Pob.), Lusaran, Pahina Central, Sinsin, Tinago, To-ong, and Pardo have already been counted.     /rcg

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