Several vote counting machines (VCM) across the province encountered various problems on Election Day, Monday, said a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official.

Rafael Montoya, Tagbilaran City Comelec officer, confirmed that several precincts experienced paper jams in using the VCMs while one VCM bogged down.

“Ang matawag gyud nato nga depektoso usa ra ang naa diri sa Eastern Cogon sa clustered 35, so mao to atong gipulihan og contingency machine kay ni aso man siya mura’g nasunog ba,” said Montoya.

Montoya said that paper jams caused operations in the affected precincts to slow down.

“Ang kadtong official ballots nga mas dagko gamay sa agianan, sa paper slot. Tungod sa maong problema nakahatag ug gamay nga pagkalangan sa mga botante sa ilang pag boto,” he added.

Based on reports gathered by Montoya, Tagbilaran City precincts in San Isidro, Ubujan, Booy, Bool and Cogon experienced paper jams while there were no reported problems in other voting centers.

Montoya however noted that the problem on paper jams was immediately resolved.

“Mao to siya ang tambag, ato cut-an to siya og gunting gamay sa daplin aron mosud siya, mao na karon nga nakuha na sa atong mga Electoral Board ang problema maong paspas napod gamay ang [operation] kaysa ganihang buntag nga dunay nakasinati og paper jam,” he said.

Meanwhile, the town of Catigbian had problems with VCMs which rejected ballots. Authorities continued to look for a solution to the problem to prevent disenfranchisement.

In Tubigon, VCMs in precincts 16, 17 and 18 did not function due to problems with the memory cards. However, casting of ballots continued even without the use of VCMs.

Problems with voting were also encountered in Barangay Anonang in Buenavista which experienced an hour-long brownout. Operations were hampered temporarily but returned to normal after the power outage.

In Alburquerque, 120 ballots intended for the town’s Barangay Toril were delivered to Toril, Cordova in Cebu.

Authorities said that the ballots will be delivered from Cordova to Alburquerque by 3 p.m. today. (A. Doydora)