Comelec expects complete delivery of ACMs by November

MANILA, Philippines — By November, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) expects that all the 110,000 automated counting machines (ACMs) to be used in the May 2025 midterm elections will have been delivered.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia yesterday reported that technology provider Miru Systems has informed the poll body that all machines would be delivered a month ahead of schedule.

“Miru informed us that by October, they will be finishing the entire 110,000 units. Therefore, they can already complete the delivery by November,” Garcia said.

Also yesterday, some of the newly delivered machines were subjected to the Hardware Acceptance Test (HAT), with a few failing the test.

The HAT is undertaken by the provider in the presence of Comelec representatives.

Five percent of every batch of ACM deliveries shall undergo random HAT, which is being done to ensure that all components of the ACMs such as screen, scanner and audio are working efficiently, according to Garcia.

He said the test is also being conducted to determine whether the ACMs can withstand the temperature and other external factors.

“If one of the components fails, the entire ACM is immediately put aside. So far, one noticeable problem is the audio,” he added.

The three ACMs with audio problems were immediately set aside and repaired.

“Even if it’s just weak audio, it’s already rejected – meaning, that’s how strong the quality control we implement here,” Garcia noted.

The Comelec chief, however, said there was no need to replace the three ACMs with audio problems because they had already worked properly after repair.

“The rule is that if one of the components does not work, the whole machine is ignored,” Garcia noted.

He said the Comelec is imposing the highest quality standard and requiring ACMs to pass the test.

All 856 ACMs that underwent the HAT the other day passed the test.

At present, a total of 27,500 out of the 110,000 procured by the Comelec from Miru Systems have been delivered, according to Garcia.

The Comelec also expects the HAT to be completed by the end of December.

The poll body said 2,000 out of the 7,000 units of transmission devices to be used in next year’s elections have also been delivered.

Of those delivered, 80 have passed the HAT.

Garcia said 2,200 laptops for the consolidation and canvassing system have been fully delivered and shall undergo the HAT next week.

6 million aspiring voters

Meanwhile, the number of aspiring voters intending to participate in next year’s midterm elections has exceeded six million, the Comelec reported yesterday.

Garcia said they have already processed a total of 6,131,834 applications since the start of the registration period in February until Sept. 11.

Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) still has the biggest number of applicants with 1,020,212, followed by the National Capital Region with 794,855 and Central Luzon with 691,627.

The Cordillera Administrative Region registered the lowest number of applications with only 86,991.

Females accounted for 3,153,433 of the total applications processed while males comprised 2,978,401.

The Comelec also deactivated a total of 5,376,630 voters, the majority of whom failed to vote in the past two elections, according to Garcia.

Aside from those deactivated, the Comelec also removed from its list a total of 714,152 voters.

The Comelec has been urging the millions of deactivated voters to reactivate their status before the end of the registration period on Sept. 30.