Comelec switches to manual recount of ballots

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday decided to switch to a manual recount of the ballots that were cast during the 2010 May automated elections. A copy of Comelec Resolution 9164 obtained by GMA News Online states that "the recount of the votes on the ballots shall be done manually and visually." It did not say the reason behind the switch. This is a departure from the poll body's earlier resolution — Comelec Resolution 9104 — which says that ballots shall be recounted using Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines. Under the new guidelines, the protestant shall submit a list of at most 20 percent of the total number of protested clustered precincts that will best show the legitimacy of his or her claims. It said that the ballot recount for the rest of the contested precincts shall not commence until the Comelec division concerned has determined the merits of the protest. "Based on the results of such post-recount determination, the division may dismiss the protest, without further proceedings, if no reasonable recovery was established from the pilot protested precincts, otherwise, the recount of the ballots in the remaining protested clustered precincts shall proceed, to be followed by the recount of the counter-protested clustered precincts, if any," it said. If the recount is given a go signal, the recount committee shall convene and the election paraphernalia used in the precincts concerned shall be brought to the designated venue. Before opening the ballot boxes, the recount committee shall be asked to "note" its condition and determine whether its integrity has been "preserved." If it looks like it was tampered with, it will still be opened but with some annotations. And although the ballots shall be counted manually, its authentication shall be made through the use of PCOS machines or any other device capable of authenticating them. Once the ballots are taken out, they shall be classified into: ballots for protestant, ballots for other candidates, stray ballots, and ballots with voting marks. Stray ballots shall refer to ballots with two or more shades or without any shade for the contested position, while marked ballots shall refer to ballots with marks outside the ovals. If it's determined that the integrity of some ballots were compromised, the chairman of the recount committee shall request the Comelec election records and statistics department to print the ballot images stored in the compact flash (CF) cards inside the contested PCOS units. After segregating and counting the valid ballots, stray, marked or rejected ballots will be given to the parties for review while the other ballots shall be counted and tallied on a sheet. — RSJ/KBK, GMA News