Election watchdog wants 25-percent shading threshold back

National

AN ELECTION watchdog will be recommending to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to revert the ballot shading threshold from 15 percent back to 25 percent, following a wave of complaints from voters whose choices were misread or invalidated by highly sensitive counting machines.

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said it recommends that the Comelec reinstate the 25-percent shading threshold to reduce machine errors and voter disenfranchisement.

PPCRV spokesperson Ana Singson said the watchdog received an “unprecedented number” of complaints this year about votes being invalidated or misread, largely attributed to the high sensitivity of the automated counting machines (ACMs) to smudges, stray marks, or unintended shading.

“This is the first election year we’ve seen this volume of overvoting and smudging complaints since we shifted to automation,” Singson said.

“We are very sure that in our final report, we will recommend to the Comelec to bring back the 25-percent shading threshold, which was used in 2022,” she added.

The current 15-percent threshold, approved by the Comelec en banc in November 2023, is the lowest ever used since the country adopted automated elections in 2010.

Singson noted that while the ACMs’ precision could be a factor, improperly shaded or marked ballots may have also contributed to the reading errors.

On Election Day, thousands of voters were surprised to find that their votes were either not counted or misinterpreted by ACMs, despite properly shading the required ovals.

Many blamed the machine’s “over-sensitivity” to ink smudges or marks unintentionally made while handling the ballots.

Groups such as Kontra Daya and Vote Report PH said that 51.2 percent, or 693 out of 1,362 reports received by their volunteers as of 7 p.m. on May 12, were related to ACM errors. These included paper jams, rejected or unread ballots, and unrecognized votes due to smudging or overvotes.

Even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. encountered a minor glitch while casting his vote in Batac City, Ilocos Norte, when the machine failed to accept his ballot on the first attempt.

Makabayan senatorial candidate Nars Alyn Andamo was also unable to vote for a party-list group because the ACM read it as an overvote despite her having shaded only one option.

Voter-verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs) showed discrepancies in several similar cases.

Actor Khalil Ramos, who also lost his party-list vote, said he may have pressed too hard while shading his ballot, leaving an unintended mark on the reverse side that affected how the ACM read his vote.

The shift from a 25-percent to a 15-percent threshold may have confused voters who believed their ovals were shaded enough to be counted, only to find their votes rejected.

The shading threshold has changed multiple times over the years: 50 percent in 2010, lowered to 20 percent in 2013, raised to 25 percent in 2016 and 2022, and then dropped to 15 percent in 2025.

“The threshold may be too low. Slight pressure, stray marks, or excess ink from stamp pads may have triggered the machines to detect unintended votes,” Singson said.

She added that the sensitivity of the ACMs and the accuracy of their readings will be validated through the Random Manual Audit (RMA), which began on May 14.

The RMA is a post-election process that checks the accuracy of automated results by comparing manual counts of ballots with machine tallies.

Separately, the Makabayan bloc called on Comelec to explain why it used an “updated” version of the ACM software (version 3.5) instead of version 3.4, which had undergone an independent source code review.

They warned that the change in software and its hash code may compromise the credibility of the vote, raising the possibility of fraud or technical incompatibility.

“The Comelec must disclose any modifications made between versions 3.4 and 3.5, especially since only the earlier version was reviewed and certified,” the coalition said in a statement.

PPCRV said its full post-election assessment will include a formal recommendation to restore the 25-percent shading threshold to avoid further voter confusion and protect ballot integrity in future automated elections.(TGP)