Ballot printing still on track despite machine glitch

One of the machines being used for the printing of the ballots for the May 10 elections has bogged down, the consortium that will automate the elections admitted on Thursday. Smartmatic-TIM, however, was quick to deny the claim of a retired bishop that they are outsourcing the printing of 20 million of the 50.7 million ballots. “Absolutely not [true]. We supervise the process. We have our own methodology and we use our high speed printers and security markings. These aren’t ordinary ballots," said Smartmatic spokesman Gene Gregorio in response to the claims of retired Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz, convenor of the poll watchdog Kontra Daya. The Omnibus Election Code states that only the National Printing Office is mandated to print ballots for elections. Gregorio said one of their machines encountered a technical problem but assured that it is already running again. He added that they are waiting for the delivery of another Kodak printer from Japan. Around 20 percent, or roughly 10 million, of the 50.7 million ballots have already been printed, according to Gregorio. Each of the five machines prints 200,000 ballots a day, resulting to a daily turnout of 1 million ballots. The deadline for the printing of ballots is on April 25. - KBK, GMANews.TV