Vote counters 99.74 percent accurate, says commissioner

By CONG B. CORRALES
Associate Editor

THE ongoing random manual audit verification has so far shown that the vote counting machines (VCMs) used in the recently concluded automated synchronized national and local elections were 99.74 percent accurate, an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said here yesterday.

Comelec Commissioner Luie Guia said they designed the random manual audit verification to cull lessons in the recently concluded polls and to balance out the variances should they find any.

Guia, who heads the random manual audit, said they limited the audit to president, vice president, represetatives, governors, and mayors.

“This is because the other candidates take a different position in the ballots,” Guia said.

According to figures gathered by RMA officials headed by Guia, the votes for positions audited showed 99.71 percent accuracy rate for president; 99.71 percent accuracy rate for vice president; 99.78 percent accuracy rate for congressmen; 99.73 percent accuracy rate for governors; and 99.75 percent accuracy rate for mayors.

Guia noted that 353 or 49 percent out of the 715 clustered precincts have been subjected to the RMA.

“The difference is being caused by the difference in the appreciation of the shading of the oval between the machine and the RMA,” Guia said.

Guia said they expect to release the final RMA report next month.

The RMA is being conducted by the Comelec and the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections.

For his part, Joseph Hamilton Cuevas, Misamis Oriental provincial election officer, said the only major post-election problem they encountered was the delay in the release of the honoraria of the Board of Election Inspectors.

Cuevas attributed the delay to a glitch in the bank-to-bank transaction.

“Other than the delay in the distribution of the honoraria of the BEIs, we haven’t encountered any major problems,” said Cuevas. (with reports from pna)