The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) will recommend to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) the adjustment of the shading threshold in the next elections amid possibilities that even smudges are being read by automated counting machines (ACMs).

Ana de Villa-Singson, spokesperson for the parish-based movement that observes the conduct of elections, said PPCRV will include in its final report its recommendation to increase the shading threshold from 15 percent to 25 percent.

"We will recommend that we maintain the original threshold of 25 percent which was the threshold used in 2022. We think, in 15 percent, it's too sensitive," Singson said in a press conference at the PPCRV command center.

PPCRV's suggestion came after observing that in the last hours before the polls closed, it had been receiving multiple reports about smudging that Singson believed were caused by inks used when getting the thumbprints of voters before casting their votes.

Smudges in the ballots had supposedly caused inaccuracies in votes, according to Singson, citing complaints it received.

"It reads even the littlest marks. It reads even the smudge prints, which are supposed not to be counted as ballots," she said.

But if that really led to inaccuracy in the result, PPCRV has yet to find out.

Singson said the results of the random manual audit will confirm if the result of the actual votes are the same with the result of the counted votes.

Meanwhile, Singson said the conduct of this year's mid-term elections "was a little more peaceful".

She said PPCRV based this observation on the incidents that happened in Mindanao.

"In terms of a number of fatalities, it seems there's a little less of it," she said.