Hours after voting began at 6 am Monday, nearly 2,000 vote counting machines (VCMs) have malfunctioned and needed to be repaired, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

According to Comelec Commissioner George Garcia, there are 1,867 machines that encountered various issues.

"They weren't all replaced. The technicians were able to resolve the issues," said Garcia.

Among issues reported are paper jam (940), rejected ballots (606), vote counting machines scanner (158), vote counting machine printer not printing (87), and vote counting machines not printing properly (76).

Garcia said that only 10 vote counting machines required replacements so far.

News reports said a vote counting machine emitted smoke in Guimbal, Iloilo. In the National Capital Region, the queue in some precincts were long since vote counting machines malfunctioned but were repaired.

Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said there are a total of 1,900 contingency vote counting machines on standby.

"During the final testing and sealing, a total of 818 vote counting machines were defective but all were repaired. Thus, on election day, we still have 1,900 contingency vote counting machines," said Casquejo.

There a total of 107,345 voting machine units made available for the May 2022 polls. DMS