Votes are not counted while polling stations are open. Only after 7 p.m., when polls close, can votes be counted.
CLAIM: Votes for the presidential and vice-presidential races are already being counted.
RATING: FALSE
Facebook user Michael Bosz posted a series of photos on May 9 showing fake vote tallies for the presidential and vice-presidential elections.
The graphics claimed to show the vote tallies as of 2 p.m., with Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos garnering 3.09 million votes, Leni Robredo with 2.95 million votes, and Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso with 1.49 million votes.
The post about the supposed presidential vote count was actually posted at 10:02 a.m. It has been shared over 1,100 times and has gained over 1,200 reactions and is still up on Facebook, with other users posting other versions of the graphic.
Meanwhile, a similar post from the same user showing fake vice-presidential vote tallies has gathered 176 shares and 294 reactions as of 2:32 p.m.
These posts, which contained no context or little to no explanation, constitute election disinformation, which we are rating FALSE.
Votes are not counted while polling stations are open. Only after 7 p.m., when polls close, can votes be counted.
The process begins with the convening of the city and municipal board of canvassers, who will wait until the close of polling stations to receive the results.
At 7 p.m., when polls close, election officers in clustered precincts will start the counting of ballots in the vote-counting machines. The results from these machines will then be transmitted to the city and municipal board of canvassers, who will canvass and certify the results and proclaim the winning candidates at the city and municipal level.
From there, the results go to the provincial board of canvassers, who will canvass and certify the results and proclaim winners at the provincial level. Meanwhile, results in highly urbanized cities skip the provincial level and are instead transmitted to the national board of canvassers.
At the national board of canvassers, results transmitted from the provincial level and from highly urbanized cities are canvassed and certified, together with results from absentee voting.
The Comelec expects that winners of local races will be proclaimed by May 12, while winners of the presidential, vice-presidential, and senatorial and party-list groups will be proclaimed by May 16.
While the official results will take days to be announced, partial and unofficial election results will be distributed to a so-called transparency server, from where media organizations, election watchers, and political parties can monitor the results as they come in.
