MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday, March 4, said it has approved a feature displaying each person’s votes on the screens of vote-counting machines (VCMs).

This feature allows the “on-screen verification” of votes.

Through this feature, VCMs will display a person’s votes on the screen. This will allow voters to verify if the VCMs read their votes correctly.

The Comelec on Friday said VCMs will display votes on the monitor for 15 seconds per voter.

Despite this, election watchdogs want another security feature in VCMs. The watchdogs want the VCMs to print voting receipts through the so-called Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

The Comelec, however, earlier voted 7-0 against issuing voting receipts. The poll body said politicians can use the receipts in vote-buying, and issuing receipts can add 5 to 7 hours to the voting time in election precincts.

Bautista earlier said the poll body can possibly issue voting receipts to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who will join the upcoming elections.

He said on Friday that the Comelec eventually decided not to issue voting receipts to OFWs. – Rappler.com