Comelec says failure of election 'not an option' amid reports of VCM 'breakdown'

Jauhn Etienne Villaruel, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Members of the Electoral Board and poll watchers conduct their final testing and sealing of vote counting machines at Melencio M. Castelo Elementary School in Quezon City on May 3, 2022, ahead of the national and local elections on May 9. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/news/05/05/20220503-halalan-vcm-testing-sealing-qc-md-10.jpg"/><figcaption>Members of the Electoral Board and poll watchers conduct their final testing and sealing of vote counting machines at Melencio M. Castelo Elementary School in Quezon City on May 3, 2022, ahead of the national and local elections on May 9. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News</figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) assured voters Thursday that a failure of election scenario is &quot;not an option&quot; amid reports of defective vote counting machines (VCM) just 4 days before Monday&#x27;s polls.</p><div><script src="https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v2.5" async="" type="text/javascript"></script></div><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&amp;v=617246496628265" data-width="auto"> </div><p>In a press conference, Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said &quot;Comelec is in control of this elections&quot; following a statement of Vic Rodriguez, spokesman of presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos, seeking answers regarding &quot;VCM breakdown left and right.&quot;<br/> <br/>“Hindi tayo magkakaproblema [sa makina]. Ang daming repair hubs… Naitawid natin &#x27;yung 2019 elections na mas maraming defective VCMs,&quot; Casquejo told reporters.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">“FAILURE OF ELECTION IS NOT AN OPTION.”<br/><br/>Commissioner Marlon Casquejo assures voters that most of VCMs to be used on Monday’s elections are functional, citing initial data from FTS monitoring.<br/><br/>Out of over 70k VCMs tested, only 355 are up for replacement, Casquejo says. <a href="https://t.co/fkHTBx2uBs">pic.twitter.com/fkHTBx2uBs</a></p>— J. Villaruel (@jauhnetienne) <a href="https://twitter.com/jauhnetienne/status/1522128833444343809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2022</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>Casquejo reported that out of the 70,924 VCM subjected to the final testing and sealing (FTS) as of Thursday, only 355 were returned to the repair hubs over various issue.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/multimedia/photo/05/03/22/comelec-distributes-vcms-in-manila">Vote Counting Machines distributed in Manila</a></li></ul><p>&quot;Ang liit lang talaga [ng considered defective] out of 70,000 na nakapag-conduct ng FTS... I can assure anyone that there will be no problem in the vote counting machines,&quot; Casquejo said. </p><p>In comparison, Casquejo said that in 2019, about 500 VCMs were reported defective on the first day of FTS alone.</p><p>The Comelec has yet to conduct FTS on 35,250 VCMs. There are 106,704 clustered precincts for this year&#x27;s elections.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/multimedia/photo/05/03/22/final-testing-and-sealing-of-vote-counting-machines">VCM testing and sealing at Melencio Castelo Elem School, QC</a></li></ul><p>Casquejo said that the Comelec has &quot;contingency procedures&quot; in case a VCM in a precinct suddenly glitches. </p><p>&quot;The election will still continue. May balota naman, hihiramin lang ang makina... Kapag may bakante na tayong VCM, yun na ang gagamitin natin. Batch feeding na lang,&quot; he said.</p>

Comelec says failure of election 'not an option' amid reports of VCM 'breakdown' | ABS-CBN

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Comelec says failure of election 'not an option' amid reports of VCM 'breakdown'

Comelec says failure of election 'not an option' amid reports of VCM 'breakdown'

Jauhn Etienne Villaruel,

ABS-CBN News

Published May 05, 2022 05:16 PM PHT

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Commission on Elections

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Marlon Casquejo

final testing and sealing

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