THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) replaced approximately 200 automated counting machines (ACMs) due to malfunctions during the Eleksyon 2025, according to Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia.
While the affected machines did not completely fail, they exhibited repeated issues, rejecting ballots multiple times.
“We have more or less 200 machines that needed replacing. They didn’t stop working, but we noticed they rejected ballots twice,” Garcia explained to reporters. The Comelec’s operations center acted swiftly, pulling out the malfunctioning machines and replacing them with new ones to prevent further disruptions.
Reports of ACM malfunctions surfaced throughout the country, including incidents in Cebu, where five machines failed at Lahug Elementary School but were quickly repaired by technicians, and in Lipa City, Batangas, where technical issues with vote-counting machines disrupted early voting at GB Lontok Memorial Integrated School.
Garcia emphasized the Comelec’s preparedness, stating, “We have 16,000 contingency ACMs. In fact, in 2022, we replaced 2,500 machines in the early hours of voting. Those were older machines. Our approach is preventive; even if a machine isn’t broken but shows signs of potential problems, we pull it out immediately.”
