Manual audit shows 99.99% accuracy for VCMs

MANILA, Philippines — The vote counting machines (VCMs) posted the highest and almost perfect accuracy rate in the last midterm polls despite the glitches, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported yesterday.

Preliminary report of the Comelec’s Random Manual Audit (RMA) committee showed a 99.9953 percent accuracy rate of the VCMs.

It was the highest VCM accuracy rate since the country adopted computerized elections in 2010.  

The accuracy rate in 2010 was 99.5980 percent, going up to 99.9747 percent in 2013 but dropping to 99.9027 percent in 2016.

The Comelec also said the accuracy rate in the May 13 polls was highest in the senatorial votes with 99.9971 percent; followed by the votes for members of the House with 99.9946 percent and votes for mayor with 99.9941 percent.

Caraga and Zamboanga Peninsula regions registered a perfect 100 percent compatibility.

Accuracy rate is computed out of the variances or the difference between the votes counted by the voting machines and the manual count.

Commissioner Luie Guia, Comelec-RMA Committee head, said the higher accuracy rate of VCMs was apparently due to the improved process adopted by the poll body.

“We centralized the auditing unlike before that it was done in the field. We can say that this year’s audit process is more orderly,” Guia maintained.

But Guia said the report is initial, adding that his committee will be meeting later this month to consolidate their findings and recommendations.

Other members of the RMA committee expressed belief that the high accurate rate indicated that the machines supplied by Smartmatic are fraud-free.

Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) executive director Rona Caritos said they did not have any issue about the voter receipt.

“We didn’t see differences in the voter receipt among the 711 ballot boxes that were audited,” Caritos added.

Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Tomas Lipana said they observed minor variances during the RMA.

The Comelec conducted manual audit of 711 of 715 clustered precincts from 246 legislative districts.