The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that the random manual audit (RMA) of votes has so far recorded a 100 percent match rate with the automated tally.
In a press briefing on Saturday, Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino said they already received 406 ballot boxes as of May 13. Of the figure, six ballot boxes were already audited.
In her report, Ferolino said that no “variance” were recorded so far. This means that the accuracy is at 100 percent.
The RMA started last May 12 and it involves 757 clustered precincts that were randomly selected.
The Comelec’s partners for the conduct of RMA include election watchdogs the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), Philippine Statistics Authority, Philippine Institute of Certified Accountants (PICPA), among others.
Ferolino said that the RMA, which is currently being conducted at the Diamond Hotel in Manila, is expected to finish in 45 days.
To note, the RMA is the process of “examination to determine whether the automated count of the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) under an Automated Election System (AES) is accurate based on a manual verification of said count,” the Comelec said.