LUCENA CITY – Residents here cast their votes during the demonstration of a new automated voting machine held at a mall on Saturday.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Erwin Garcia said the machine to be used for the May 12, 2025 midterm elections has a smooth receptacle for the ballot, wide touchscreen monitor for easy review of the votes cast and fool-proof receptacle for the voter’s receipt.
In past elections, the ballot receipts are dropped in a box beside the counting machine.
"We immediately addressed voters' doubts whether their votes are counted because their receipts were just placed in the yellow box," Garcia said.
Garcia also encouraged the deactivated voters to renew their registration.
"Our records show that 5.2 million Filipinos were deactivated because they failed to vote during the 2022 elections and Barangay and SK (Sangguniang Kabataan) elections last year," Garcia said.
To date, Comelec has 52 million registered voters. The deadline for registration is on Sept. 30 with no plan of an extension.
In the same event, Garcia said Comelec is eyeing the proclamation of winners within three to four days.
“Ang senador siguro, abutin kami three days. Dati rati dalawang linggo na ang Comelec, hindi pa nakakatapos sa pagbilang. Siguro three to four days, Napakahaba na nung apat na araw (For senators, it might take three days. Before, the Comelec has yet to finish counting in two weeks. Four days may be the longest [for the proclamation],” he said.
He said one of the reasons for the delay in proclamation is late crediting of overseas votes, which all pass through a board of canvasser per country, or failure of elections in some areas. (With a report from Ferdinand Patinio/PNA)
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