PPCRV recommends raising ACM shading threshold to 25% before elections

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) has recommended reinstating a 25% shading threshold for automated counting machines (ACMs) ahead of the upcoming Philippine elections, citing concerns over ballot-reading issues at the current 15% setting.

PPCRV spokesperson Ana Singson stated that lowering the sensitivity too much leads to inaccuracies due to minor smudges on ballots being misread by the machines.

Singson noted that a 25% shading threshold was used during the 2022 elections and expressed confidence in the random manual audit (RMA) process to verify machine accuracy.

The Commission on Elections plans to conduct an RMA involving at least 762 randomly selected clustered precincts and one online post casting ballot through the Online Voting and Counting System starting May 13.

This test will run for 45 days to ensure that the results from both manual and automated systems match.