Iloilo City: The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Iloilo City completed the deployment of automated counting machines (ACMs) in seven districts here on Tuesday, except for mall voting which will be distributed early morning on Wednesday.

According to Philippines News Agency, “Tomorrow will be the synchronized final testing and sealing for the remaining 414 clustered precincts in the city of Iloilo,” said lawyer Pinky Jenivi Tentativa, Comelec Iloilo City Election IV, in an interview. Each clustered precinct will have one ACM. The final testing will test the accuracy of the machines. Thereafter, these will be sealed and will only be opened on Election Day.

Tentativa mentioned that 10 voters would participate in the mock voting to ensure the machine works. Once completed, the members of the electoral board must ensure that there is no transmission of results, conduct a re-zero after the mock voting, and the machines are sealed. The ACMs will then be kept in the respective storage facilities of voting centers and malls, guarded by personnel of the Philippine National Police.

Simultaneous with the ACM deployment, the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) also inspected 417 boxes containing the official ballots for Iloilo City registered voters currently being kept at the Technical Institute of Iloilo City. The inspection ensured that the ballot contents of a specific box/container are correct.

“They will remain with the warehouse after the checking and will be deployed on Election Day, May 12. The deployment will start at around 12:01 a.m.,” Tentativa said. The CTO has 25 job hires and 37 regular employees tasked with the deployment. It has also readied nine vehicles for the distribution.

As a whole, Tentativa said they are ready for the May 12 elections, from security personnel to teachers serving in the electoral board. Iloilo City has 330,621 registered voters expected to cast votes in 417 clustered precincts in 66 voting centers, including the four malls.