TWILIGHT ZONE. The Philippine Center on Fifth Avenue in New York
MANILA, Philippines — The Consulate General of the Philippines in New York has temporarily suspended the ballot feeding there after one of its vote counting machines (VCMs) had a “technical issue.”
In an advisory dated April 21 (April 22 in Philippine time), the Consulate General said a ballot was stuck inside one of the VCMs.
“The Consulate General of the Philippines in New York informs the public that it had to suspend the ballot feeding at the Kalayaan Hall this afternoon after one of its Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) encountered a technical issue,” the Consulate said.
“The technical issue was encountered during the later part of the ballot feeding process when one of two remaining ballots got stuck inside one of the VCMs. It was witnessed by election observers who were present and was also captured on our live Facebook video stream,” it added.
The Consulate said that while a secondary VCM is available, the Consulate decided to suspend the ballot feeding until it receives guidance from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) whether said VCM, which has not undergone final testing, can be utilized.
“Since a response from the Comelec could not be immediately received due to the time difference, the Consulate has decided to just have the remaining ballots fed on the next scheduled ballot feeding on Monday, 25 April 2022,” the Consulate said.
“By then, Comelec guidance would already have been given,” it added.
The Philippine Consulate General in New York has mailed out 70 percent of ballots to Filipino overseas voters under its jurisdiction, Consul General Elmer Cato said Thursday.
Government data shows that there are 1,697,215 registered overseas absentee voters for the May 9 elections.