MANILA – The vote counting machines (VCMs) used in the just concluded special elections in the 7th District of Cavite were found to be 99.96 percent accurate in tallying the votes, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported on Tuesday.
The poll body said the random manual audit (RMA) held on Sunday in seven clustered precincts was found to be almost 100 percent correct.
However, it added that one variance was detected between the counts made by the Automated Election System (AES) and the audit.
"After auditing seven out of seven clustered precincts randomly selected, it yielded an accuracy rate of 99.95968 percent with only one variance or difference between the counts made by the AES and the RMA," the Comelec said.
This was recorded in the town of Tanza after only 1,066 out of the 1,067 votes matched.
"Said variance can be readily explained by the difference between the visual and mechanical measurements (reading) of the oval shading threshold by the Random Manual Audit Team (RMAT) and the Vote Counting Machine (VCM)," it added.
On the other hand, the audit found 100 percent matching are the votes from Trece Martires City, 830 out of 830; Indang, 336 out of 336 and Amadeo, 247 out of 247.
The Poll Automation Law mandates the conduct of RMA, which is done by manually counting the votes on the machine-readable paper ballots to determine the accuracy of the election results.
Crispin Diego "Ping" Diaz Remulla won the special polls after receiving 98,474 votes against his three other rivals.
He was proclaimed the new representative of the 7th District of Cavite on Sunday, a day after the polls.
Crispin Diego succeeds his father, then Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla, who is now the Secretary of the Department of Justice. (PNA)
