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Comelec explains discrepancies in poll results


The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday admitted that "human error" and not the machines used in last Monday's automated elections has caused the discrepancies between the printed and transmitted election results. At a press briefing, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the error happened in choosing which memory card to use in printing the election returns (ERs). He assured that the machines are "counting accurately" and that manual reconciliation of the discrepancies is being done. "As you can see, the situation is well in hand. It’s largely due to human error, and it has nothing to do with the system. The situation has been identified and it has been resolved," he said. Jimenez explained that the transmitted election results in some areas do not tally with those in the printed ERs because some election inspectors "inadvertently" used the back-up memory card to print ERs instead of data from the main memory card. FTS Jimenez said the back-up memory card stored 10 additional votes from the final testing and sealing (FTS) procedures conducted before election day, which caused the discrepancies. "FTS procedures only used ten ballots. The results of the FTS were saved on to the back-up memory cards and in some cases, where the [board of election inspectors] had to resort to contingency measures, they took out the wrong card for delivery for where they can print the ER," he said. "When that happens, there was now a variance between what they transmitted which was drawn from the main memory, and from what they printed, which was drawn from a back-up memory card," he added. Only 150,000 voters from about 190 precincts nationwide — or less than one percent of the total votes cast — were affected by the discrepancies, Jimenez also said. "It is a rather small number, pero syempre, nakakaalarma kapag nakita ng tao sa baba nang walang konteksto (but of course, this number is alarming if seen by people on the ground without the proper context)," he said. Manual reconciliation To solve the discrepancies, the Comelec said it would resort to "manual reconciliation" of transmitted results and data in printed ERs. Printed ERs will have to be compared with the transmitted results in Comelec servers to determine where the discrepancies are and how to correct them, Comelec information technology consultant Renato Garcia said. "This has been anticipated vis-a-vis our continuity plan. If you look at our continuity plan, it provides for a manual reconciliation to preserve the integrity of the computerized system. The reconciliation will be done to manual certificates of canvass (COCs) for those that have already been transmitted," he said in an interview after the press briefing. - KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV

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