The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will audit 762 polling precincts nationwide after the May 12 National and Local Elections to verify the accuracy of vote-counting machines.
Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said the precincts will be randomly selected through an electronic raffle system. One Philippine post abroad using the Online Voting and Counting System will also be included, with the possibility of more depending on the Random Manual Audit Committee (RMAC).
“The public, especially those doubting the election results, should wait for the results of the RMA as it will be the one to determine if the votes counted by the machines are correct,” Garcia said.
The audit will manually count ballots from the selected precincts and compare them to the machine-generated results. According to Garcia, the process has maintained a 99.9 percent accuracy rate since automated elections began in 2010.
Under Comelec Resolution 11089, precincts for audit are proportionally distributed across legislative districts. The RMAC is composed of Comelec, the Department of Education, the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, the Legal Network for Truthful Elections, and the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants.