AdDU’s Blue Vote receives complaints on missing names, malfunctioning VCMs

SEVERAL Dabawenyos voters were disenfranchised during the national and local elections last Monday, May 9, according to Davao City-based watchdog group Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) Blue Vote.

ADDU Blue Vote received reports of malfunctioning vote-counting machines (VCM) and missing names during election day on May 9, 2022 thus some voters were not able to cast their votes.

Based on the update as of 5:00 pm on May 9, there were reports of ten defective VCMs and 200 missing names in Davao City.

ADDU Blue Vote Director Ramon Beleno III said during an interview at the Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School voting center, some VCMs reported to be malfunctioning were prone to paper jams thus, the ballots could not be fed correctly into the machine.

Beleno said some of the VCMs were already glitching even during the final testing and sealing on May 5 - a few days before the election day.

“Siguro nandoon sa design nung rating ballots ngayon, mas malapad kasi siya so kailangan talagang tamang-tama lang, at the same time napakahaba. so minsan, pag pasok niyo sa ballot box, hindi talaga siya nag didiretso,” Beleno said.

There were also reported problems related to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) voters’ list such as 200 missing names, 31 deactivated voting statuses, and two deceased voters but were still on the list.

Beleno said the missing names reported were either due to skipping the previous elections or were just plain missing from the master list. He added that the voting center in Catalunan Pequeño had the most cases of missing names.

“Pero yung trend kasi, siguro mas marami (missing) kasi mas marami na rin yung botante ngayon,” he said. “Ang duda namin baka nalipat lang rin sila ng polling center or ng barangay.”

Addu Blue Vote also received reports of three persons who were unaware of their transfer to another precinct.

Although the problems were identified, Beleno said the glitches during the election could not be resolved by them since it was up to Comelec to address the issues. “It’s actually with Comelec. And kung sinasabi ng comelec kung wala talaga yung pangalan mo, hindi ka talaga makakaboto,” he said.