Machine errors, secrecy lapses, long waits hound voters in midterm polls' first half

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MANILA, Philippines — In just the first half of election day, reports of overcrowding, invalid ballots, over-voting and malfunctioning vote-counting machines have already surfaced.

The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), an accredited citizens’ arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), released its preliminary findings on the conduct of the May 12 elections so far.

While volunteers reported a high voter turnout, they also observed overcrowding at voter assistance desks, holding areas and hallways.

There was also a lack of chairs for those on the priority lane — senior citizens, pregnant women and persons with disabilities. In some cases, such as at Rizal Elementary School in Taguig City, there was absence of a dedicated priority lane altogether.

Senior citizens voting at cluster instead

Philstar.com also spoke with a 57-year-old voter who was accompanying his mother-in-law to Bambang Elementary School in Pasig City. 

He said she struggled to breathe on the way to the polling precinct due to the extreme heat and needed a wheelchair, but staff were struggling to provide one, delaying their chance to vote. 

During a check at the priority polling place, some senior citizens expressed frustration over the long wait times, with some waiting up to an hour. 

This led a few to consider voting at their designated cluster precinct, where they could feed their own ballot into the vote-counting machines.

When asked about the process, a priority polling place aide explained that voters in these areas would not be able to feed their ballots into the machine themselves. 

This was done to expedite the process. Their ballots, secured in brown expandable envelopes, would be fed into the machine later, around 5 p.m., he told Philstar.com.

Vote-counting machine mishaps

NAMFREL, however, noted that most reported election issues were related to the automated vote counting machines, observed by one-fourth of its volunteers. Some of the common problems include:

• Printing jams in the voter-verified paper audit trail, or VVPAT
• Machines flagging properly filled ballots as invalid
• Ballots rejected or misread due to stray marks or ink smudges
• Screens with black marks preventing the machines from reading ballots
• Machines rejecting and spitting out ballots because of folds

These issues, though not present in all areas, were observed in polling precincts across Las Piñas City, Cebu City, Pasay City, Pangasinan, Pasig City, Laguna, Quezon City, Manila, Iloilo, Surigao and Legazpi.

NAMFREL said the issues were eventually resolved, with one incident delaying voting by about 10 minutes and affecting six voters. 

IT support staff under the Department of Education Supervisory Officials, or DESO, responded quickly to machines that failed to read ballots, while Electoral Board officials also requested repairs in at least one precinct.

Misread ballots were later accepted and reportedly did not disrupt the voting process in some areas. In cases where ballots were rejected due to folds, cleaning the machine’s roller resolved the issue.

Several voters also reported cases of over-voting, including Makabayan senatorial candidate Alyn Andamo and actor Khalil Ramos, who said their votes for a party-list were not counted after their ballots were flagged for over-voting, even though they shaded only one group.

Not much secrecy?

Aside from issues with vote-counting machines, NAMFREL also flagged violations of ballot secrecy in several areas. These include:

• Electoral Board members in a Taguig City polling precinct feeding ballots into the machine instead of allowing the voters to do so.
• The absence of ballot secrecy folders at Las Piñas City National Science High School.
• Voters discussing their choices with others.
• Ballots being visible to other voters, which in some cases were caused by insufficient secrecy folders.

However, based on 75% of its volunteers, NAMFREL observed that voting proceeded smoothly. Nearly half reported that voters took between one and 10 minutes to cast their ballots, while almost one-third noted a voting time of 11 to 20 minutes.

Comelec expects 68 million Filipinos to vote for local leaders, senators and party-list representatives in the midterm polls. Voting for vulnerable groups began as early as 5 a.m., while regular voting was scheduled from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.