The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the Negros Island Region (NIR) is gearing up for a roadshow caravan next week to educate the voters on the automated counting machines (ACMs) for the 2025 polls.

The Comelec-NIR regional election director, lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, told the Philippine News Agency on Monday, November 25, that all the election officers and staff participating in the roadshow caravan have already been trained on the ACM and its features.

“The Comelec conducted last week the national convention of election officers on how to operate the automated counting machines because they are configured the same way as that to be used in next year’s elections,” he said.

He said the ACMs for the roadshow would not be capable of electronically transmitting the results as the activity is mainly for voters’ education, considering the new features, unlike the vote counting machines used in the 2022 polls.

Castillano said they expect the vote-counting machines to arrive this week, ahead of the simultaneous nationwide start of the roadshow on December 2.

The roadshow, which runs until January 30, 2025, aims to reach as many people as possible in the barangays, schools and other places of convergence in all the towns and cities, to teach them the new features of the ACMs.

The Comelec will also conduct voters’ education on the ACMs for the candidates, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, the media, and other groups/institutions.

Each municipality and city will have one ACM while another will be deployed at the NIR regional office in capital Dumaguete.

Castillano said they are also pushing that provincial Comelec offices should also be given an ACM unit to saturate areas, especially those in hard-to-reach barangays.

Upon arrival in the provinces, the official forwarder will deliver the ACMs directly to the election officers of the towns and cities, he added. (PNA)