Comelec irons out kinks, voters try shading limits in Sulu mock polls

JOLO, Sulu — Election officer Munira Arasid was assisting in feeding the ballot of voters in the automated counting machines (ACM) during the mock elections held here Saturday for the upcoming midterm polls.

Arasid, whose precinct belongs to one of the 15 participating areas designated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) nationwide, said it is necessary to do so since some had a hard time feeding their ballots due to issues in alignment, minor folds, among other kinks.

Voters usually feed their ballots themselves, but instances like this compel election officers to do it for them.

“Some of the voters are even illiterate, so we assist them,” she said during the sidelines of the mock elections held at a precinct in Sulu State College, where 100 voters are expected to vote throughout the day.

Nevertheless, Arasid was pleased with the new ACM, which she said is more “effortless” to operate than the old precinct count optical scanner or PCOS machines.

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“It is effortless as compared to the previous machine—we want this one more,” she said.

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New ballot shading threshold

Aside from its speed, the ACMs can also read a vote even without a full shade of ballot.

READ: Vote counting machines for 2025 polls hurdle shading threshold test

In fact, even a dot of a pen on the ballot circle could be counted as a valid vote, under the Comelec’s new designated shading threshold of 15 percent.

The threshold refers to the minimum amount of shading on a ballot circle recognized as a valid vote.

First time voter Flodemier Sakandal put this to test.

Sakandal was fully-shading his votes on the practice ballots, until he was told to try the Comelec’s new dot threshold.

He then put a dot on one of the ballot circles.

“When I read the [voter receipt], the ones I voted for using only the dot have really appeared,” Sakandal told INQUIRER.net.

“I am really excited to vote because this is my first time.”

Smudge

Aside from a precinct in Sulu State College, Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia oversaw the mock polls in two other precincts in Patikul town.

Garcia noted that everything went well and all of the precincts in 15 areas nationwide, as well as the test of online voting in Singapore.

However, Garcia said the Comelec observed a minor smudge in the ballot.

“I saw one problem that we need to put a remedy to,” Garcia said at an ambush interview in Mudjunun Elementary School in Patikul town. “I saw a ballot which had a smudge, the ink spread to the ballot by the voter’s hands.”

However, the smudged ballot was still recognized by the ACM machine, Garcia said.

But Garcia is still not satisfied with this, saying the Comelec has to determine how to reduce such instances from happening.

“We need to put a remedy to that, that is the purpose of mock elections,” he said.