MANILA, Philippines – Voters who stayed up late to track the 2025 midterm election results may have experienced premature excitement or disappointment, as early tallies displayed on media live updates turned out to be flawed.
Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, May 13, media outlets discovered that thousands of precinct results had been duplicated during the data consolidation process at the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) central server—impacting an estimated 5 million votes.
These duplicated results were unknowingly shared with the five transparency servers, which are used by media organizations, poll watchdogs, and political parties to access and disseminate election data.
Comelec’s IT department responded after tech teams from media outlets flagged the issue. Around 2:00 a.m., the Comelec released corrected files to address the duplicated entries.
Among the most affected was reelectionist Senator Bong Go, who lost around 5.2 million votes in the corrected tally, though he remains in the lead. While other senatorial candidates also saw their vote counts adjusted by the millions, the composition of the “Magic 12” remained unchanged, with only the rankings of Rodante Marcoleta and Ping Lacson switching places.
Widespread Impact on Rankings and Vote Counts
A review of the updated Comelec files as of 11:44 p.m. revealed the following disruptions:
Affected precincts: 15,001
Impacted candidates: 39,280
Positions affected (single-winner races): 1,400+
Adjusted candidate rankings: ~7,600
Technical Confusion, Delays in Transmission
The vote transmission process—bolstered by advanced satellite technology—was expected to be swift, with Comelec projecting completion within three hours. However, technical issues quickly arose.
Despite initial indications that the Comelec’s central system began receiving election returns (ERs) from over 93,000 precincts by 7:00 p.m. on Monday, May 12, accredited media groups encountered delays and confusing file structures during the unofficial quick count.
Early on, the transparency server workstations failed to receive results files. When files did arrive, hash mismatches raised concerns about the integrity and completeness of the data. In some instances, the files were entirely blank.
Comelec’s IT division later explained that the server synchronization failures were causing the mismatched hash values. Even after partial restoration, problems persisted—many of the transmitted files were malformed or in unexpected formats, leading to further confusion for transparency server users attempting to interpret the data.
The Comelec has yet to release a full technical explanation or timeline of how the issue arose and what steps are being taken to prevent a recurrence. Media organizations and election watchdogs continue to urge greater transparency and accountability in the automated election system.
