Marcos, Duterte not spared by counting machine glitches

President Marcos successfully cast his vote for the 2025 midterm elections, but not after encountering a technical glitch that forced him to feed his ballot into the ACM twice with the assistance of a Commission on Elections (Comelec) personnel.

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On the other hand, Vice President Duterte noted the slow ACM, which took several seconds before it read the ballot.

Marcos arrived at Precinct Number 36-A at the Mariano Marcos Memorial Elementary School in Batac City, Ilocos Norte, at 7:06 a.m. on Monday, May 12, with his mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos, and sister Irene Marcos-Araneta. His son, Ilocos Norte First District Rep. and reelectionist Sandro Marcos, accompanied them.

The President shook hands with the people as he entered the school and went straight to their polling precinct. It took Marcos four minutes to finish shading his ballot, making him the first of the three to finish.

However, President Marcos’ first attempt to feed his ballot into the ACM failed after encountering an error. This prompted a Comelec personnel to rush to the President’s side, open the machine, reclaim his ballot, and let Marcos feed it into the ACM for the second time, this time the ballot was finally accepted.