THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Baguio City is set to conduct a demonstration on the use of the Vote Counting Machine (VCM) on January 30 at the Diocese of Baguio.
Lawyer John Paul Martin, Baguio City election supervisor, explained the purpose is to inform the voting public on the new features of the enhanced VCMs to make voting more efficient in line with its roadshow on January 28 to 31 and on February 28.
"We will be demonstrating the machines to be used for the upcoming 2019 elections particularly on how to cast ones vote by using this enhanced machine, and what the new features and security features are so that the voters and candidates would be complacent," Martin said.
There will be no changes on how the machines will be used as most of the upgrades were made on how the system operates to be more efficient.
"We are inviting the various sectors in the city to schedule themselves at our office for a demo of the VCM as this is part of our information dissemination campaign for our constituents in Baguio City," Martin added.
Over the years, several candidates and tech experts have alleged that the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines could be used to rig election results.
The electoral tribunal, however, did not say if security features of the voting machines were also enhanced.
Comelec had denied such allegations and purchased at least 97,000 vote counting machines from contractor Smartmatic last year. (Jonathan Llanes)
