Philippines’ Election Tech Woes Spark Concern

 

The Philippines, long regarded as a regional pioneer in election modernization, is now in the midst of a crisis that threatens to unravel years of progress. The 2025 national elections—plagued by widespread technical failures—have cast a shadow over the country’s hard-earned reputation.

The breakdown began at the very start of election day, when President Bongbong Marcos himself struggled to cast his vote as the automated counting machine repeatedly failed to scan his ballot. This scenario—machines rejecting ballots, malfunctioning printers, and stalled voting lines—was not an isolated case. As widely reported, similar incidents unfolded in thousands of precincts nationwide.

Local election watchdogs like LENTE and the PPCRV warned that the problems were not merely technical hiccups but signs of deeper systemic failures. Overvoting occurred on a large scale due to low-quality paper ballots and substandard pens that caused ink to bleed and marks to be misread. Many voters also reported discrepancies between their selections and the printed voter receipts (VVPATs).

As voting ended and vote-counting machines began transmitting results, media tech teams discovered that thousands of vote transmissions had been duplicated—corresponding to nearly five million votes. COMELEC later claimed it had corrected the issue in the early hours of the morning, but the lack of transparency around the fix only deepened public distrust.

The magnitude of these glitches is difficult to overstate. They have cast a dark cloud over the credibility of the electoral process and triggered widespread public outcry. What’s worse, this is not the first time Miru Systems—the technology provider responsible for this year’s infrastructure—has been implicated in election failures. In Iraq’s 2018 parliamentary elections, Miru’s technology failed so catastrophically that the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) was forced to mandate a full nationwide recount. Today, echoes of that episode are reverberating in the Philippines, where some public officials, civil society organizations, and voters alike are starting to demand a similar audit.

Filipinos waited for hours under the punishing heat, queuing with hope and conviction that their vote would count. That trust now hangs in the balance. A transparent manual recount—as already requested by the PPCRV—is essential not only to confirm who truly won and lost, but also to begin restoring public faith in the democratic process. In parallel, election data must be made fully accessible to independent auditors.

The Philippines stands at a crossroads. The world is watching. These elections can still be redeemed—not through spin or silence, but through truth, transparency, and accountability. Without that, the country’s proud legacy of electoral innovation may be lost. But with courage and reform, it can emerge stronger—and once again lead by example.

Election integrity and speed election results publication

 

A full week after polls closed in the US midterm elections of 2022, the counting had yet to wrap up in many counties and states. The drawn-out count had the nation on tenterhooks as it awaited results in battleground states that could dictate the makeup of Congress. For many Americans, the delay brought back fraught memories of 2020 when it took several excruciating days for the winning presidential candidate to be determined.

News consumption has changed drastically in recent years. With social media circulating information worldwide at lightening speeds we have become accustomed to immediate access to information. In this context, election authorities are asking Americans to wait an entire week while diligent poll workers process paper ballots – an impossible ask.

The speed of election results is a variable that needs to be evaluated urgently by election commissions. It’s no longer enough for election officers to facilitate voting and counting votes accurately. Together with voter participation, or the security and accuracy of results, speed is a key variable to preserve election integrity. In the absence of results, information voids will be filled with conspiracy theories of all kinds.

One of the main causes of the delay in the US is the large number of voters who choose to participate using the modality of voting by mail. According to data from the US census, in 2020, 43% of voters exercised their right by sending their ballot by mail. The rising popularity of vote by mail is clear evidence that voters appreciate convenience. Yet, this is a voting method that presents many challenges for those who administer the election. Each envelope received must be reviewed to validate the voter's signature, and then be passed through an optical scanner that registers the voter's vote. The use of drop boxes in some jurisdictions also holds up the process as it necessitates physical retrieval of ballots and segregation into correct precincts.

Although participation rates in the US soared in the last couple elections, for decades it trailed that of many other industrialized nations. According to a Pew Research Center study, election participation in the US ranked 31st among OECD countries. Facing participation declines, election authorities prioritized participation and promoted voting by mail. The increase of division and polarization that surround our elections, and the ubiquity of disinformation should make election officials reconsider their priorities.

The 2022 midterm elections have made it abundantly clear that authorities need to implement technology-based solutions to speed up vote counting and processing. It is time to give voters who want the convenience of casting their ballot remotely the option to vote online. Estonia, a Baltic nation with a long-standing tradition of fighting Russian hackers could be a good example to emulate. Since 2005, Estonians have had the option to securely cast a ballot online or to head to a polling station to cast a ballot with pen and paper. Online voting is now the preferred voting option.

Allowing voters to cast their ballot online would decrease the number of ballots election workers process manually. Results could be immediately published on election night. This small, yet important reform could go a long way fighting the disinformation that abounds in the critical hours of election night.