There have been recurring technical issues in several areas amid the 2025 Philippine elections, the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) reported Monday.
In a statement, LENTE said the technical issues primarily involved the automated counting machines (ACMs).
“The most common problem involved sensitive scanners that frequently rejected ballots. In these instances, the Electoral Board had to temporarily pause operations to clean the scanner, resulting in delays and long queues,” LENTE said.
In a precinct in Zamboanga del Sur, the ACM started rejecting ballots at around 5:30 a.m. and remained unresolved at 6:56 a.m.
“Voters were allowed to fill out their ballots but were informed that their ballots would be temporarily set aside and fed into the ACM once operational,” LENTE said.
It also noted that some voting centers in Ilocos Sur, Cagayan, Negros Oriental, Bohol, Aklan, and Lanao Del Norte experienced the same issues.
In a precinct in Santa Cruz, Laguna, a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail was jammed, but the electoral board resolved the issue.
LENTE also received reports of voters “mistakenly” obtaining more than one ballot.
“This can be due to the thinness of the ballot paper, causing the sheets to stick together,” LENTE said.
“We call on our Electoral Board Chairpersons to exercise diligence in the issuance of ballots to ensure that each voter receives exactly one ballot,” it added.
Meanwhile, a vehicle displaying a candidate’s campaign tarpaulin parked within the premises of a voting center in CALABARZON, LENTE said.
Similar cases were observed in San Jacinto, Pangasinan, where some people engaged in the distribution of campaign flyers outside the polling site.
Flyers were also being distributed to Indigenous People voters in front of a polling center in San Jose Del Monte City, Bulacan.
“While most voting centers where LENTE monitors were deployed began preparations on time, technical and procedural issues must be addressed swiftly to avoid disenfranchisement and reinforce public trust in the electoral process,” LENTE said. —KG, GMA Integrated News
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