MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is retiring Smartmatic’s decade-old vote-counting machines that Filipinos have used since the 2016 elections, and will be replacing them with new equipment from Korean firm Miru Systems for the 2025 midterms.

The first batch of machines has arrived in the Philippines, and while they will still be subject to customization, the poll body has kicked off a voter education campaign to demonstrate how to use such automated counting machines (ACMs).

Rappler was among the first entities that was given an early preview of how these machines work on Thursday, June 6, and we now list down key features of the equipment.

Two systems in one machine, including a touch-screen feature

Two of the most common types of voting technology in the world are direct recording electronic (DRE) system and optical mark recognition (OMR). The latter is what Filipinos have been used to, because Smartmatic’s vote-counting machines (VCMs) read the marks made on ballot papers.

Miru’s ACMs are also OMR equipment, but, unlike Smartmatic’s machines, they also possess DRE technology. This means that the touch-screen feature of the equipment can be enabled, and voters can cast their ballot without physically filling out a ballot paper.

That said, the Comelec is clear that for the 2025 polls, the touch-screen feature of the machines will only be enabled in select countries abroad for overseas voting, because doing the same in the Philippines where there are hundreds of voters in every polling precinct may cause delays and pose further logistical problems.

Faster feeding of ballots

In past elections, the Comelec had specific instructions on how to feed the ballot into the machine.

Miru’s ACMs, as Comelec Chairman George Garcia demonstrated on Thursday, have an automatic feature so a voter does not have to precisely align the ballot into the paper feed.

He added that Miru’s machines can eat the ballot at a rate of 220 millimeters per second, compared to the 70 millimeters per second of Smartmatic’s VCMs.

Thinner papers

The ballot papers for the 2025 elections will be 90 grams per square meter (GSM) in terms of thickness, compared to 162 GSM in the 2022 elections.

In 2019 elections, mishaps gripped the Comelec in mounting the polls, including ballot papers that felt thin and markers that bled.

So far, based on test voters’ experience during the Comelec demo at the Rappler headquarters on Thursday, the marking on one side of the ballot did not bleed through the opposite side when participants used Miru’s pens.

Summary of votes projected onto the screen, notification to complete vote

After voters feed their ballot into the machine, the screen – now wider, tilted, and with secrecy panels on both sides – will summarize the names of candidates they voted for. The machine will ask them to review their votes one last time before pressing “cast” on the screen. If they mistakenly undervote, voters have the option to reclaim the ballot already fed into the machine so they can fill out overlooked sections of their ballot.

QR code, built-in camera to scan the QR code, image of the accomplished ballot projected onto the ACM screen

Comelec Chairman Garcia has repeatedly acknowledged the concerns of election skeptics who would rather return to manual elections or shift to a hybrid system than continue with fully automated elections: how can they be sure that the machine correctly counts their vote?

While there have been numerous mechanisms in place – such as the checking of election returns as well as the random manual audit – the staunchest critics remain unsatisfied.

For the 2025 polls, once voters cast their ballot, the machine will still print a voter receipt which they can check to see if the machine read their ballot correctly. The receipt will also now have a QR code. They won’t be allowed to take a photo of that QR code, but once polls close, election workers have the capability to double-check if the result in the receipt matches that on the physical ballot.

Election workers simply have to scan the QR code using the built-in camera under the machine’s wide screen. Once done, the screen will show the image of the paper ballot that the voter accomplished.

The Comelec said all the ballot images (minus the stub that will disclose the voter’s identity) will be flashed for 20 seconds each (possibly using a projector) after the closing of polls to allow election watchers to review if the electronic count of the machine matches their physical count of the ballots.

Built-in ballot box

In past elections, the voter receipts were dropped into yellow ballot boxes by voters. For 2025, the machines will have a built-in receptacle where the voters should insert their receipts.

The Comelec has spent P17.9 billion for the lease of 110,000 new machines from Miru, as well as the delivery of canvassing laptops, printers, ballot papers, and other election supplies.

The poll body said leasing the machines instead of purchasing new ones is more cost-efficient since the poll body would no longer have to spend for warehousing once the elections are over, and could simply ship them back to the supplier. The commission won’t also be stuck with machines that would later become obsolete in the face of rapidly evolving technology.

Read other stories from Rappler’s ongoing coverage of the search for election technology providers in the 2025 midterms:

• FAST FACTS: Miru Systems, the lone bidder for the costliest 2025 election contract
• How Korean firm Miru became front-runner in search for 2025 PH election provider
• TIMELINE: Miru’s road to becoming PH’s voting machine provider in 2025
• [OPINION] Is Miru finally replacing Smartmatic? The Supreme court has the final answer.
• Miru’s local partner under scrutiny over expired license, ties with blacklisted firm
• Philippines transitions to online voting for most overseas Filipinos in 2025
• Smartmatic out: iOne, Ardent Networks bag P1.4-B transmission deal for 2025 polls
• EXPLAINER: The blemished reputation abroad of Miru, Comelec’s 2025 voting machine supplier
• Supreme Court: Comelec wrong to ban Smartmatic from future PH election contracts
• Supreme Court orders Comelec, Miru to defend multi-billion deal for 2025 polls

– Rappler.com

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Directly ask Comelec staff questions or air concerns to the government body through this chat room. Download the app for free on App Store and Play Store, and find the chat room in the Community tab.