Fifteen precincts around the country will be allowed to extend their voting period due to printing issues with ballots, Commission on Elections chairperson George Garcia announced Monday evening.
“Yung issue sa balota nila, ‘yung timing marks malabo at hindi binasa ng mismong makina and therefore we ordered immediately this afternoon the reprinting of the ballots,” he told a media conference.
The election chief said the new ballots will be sent out by tomorrow via military planes to the concerned precincts.
While these fifteen polling centers will not affect the outcome of the elections, the voting proper will push through to avoid the disenfranchisement of voters from those precincts, Garcia explained.
As of writing, the Comelec en banc was discussing extending voting hours in Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao del Norte – which earlier suffered delays due to residents blocking the entry of the municipality’s electoral board and election materials.
(Read Voting delays in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Saudi Ampatuan in BARMM resolved – Comelec)
The commission will formalize through a resolution which precincts will extend voting hours. Garcia also said that because of the humidity and heat this afternoon, automated counting machines (ACMs) encountered minor hiccups.
“One of the greatest factors in this election is the heat index,” stressed Garcia, adding that one voter in Oas, Albay fainted just moments before he finished casting his vote. The voter was rushed to the hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.
Dirty scanners and printers were the most common problems encountered in ACMs – exacerbated by the extreme heat and humidity this afternoon. Election officers had to clean or replace these ACMs, said Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco, which reached a total of 298 ACMs replaced as of 3 p.m.
There are 16,000 contingency machines for the 44,000 precincts all over the country. Vote transmission will start exactly at 7 p.m. The commission expects to receive a large wave of transmitted votes by 10 this evening.
Netizens reported major hurdles as they cast their votes. Problems included bottlenecks in voter admission to the precincts, machines rejecting filled out ballots and alleged reports of mismatch of ballots and voter receipts. With Rhoanne De Guzman
