The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) will be embarking on an unchartered territory, so to speak. With the signing of the controversial 7.3 Billion Peso contract with the winning bidder SMARMATIC-TIM, Inc., the ball started rolling for the COMELEC to fully automate the national and local elections on May 10, 2010 – using the hybrid system known as Precinct Count Optical System – Optical Mark Recording (PCOS-OMR). It is just, actually, a simple counting machine. Voting will still be done manually by the voters. As per contract, COMELEC will be leasing 82,000 of these machines.
Except in a test run in the ARRM Elections, the country has no direct experience on a fully automated elections so far. In 2004 elections, there was an attempt to automate the presidential elections but the Supreme Court restrained the move based on a petition in court filed by one of the losing bidders which later resulted to the junking of the proposed automation, costing the government something like P2 billion pesos. To date, the counting machines are still stored somewhere in one of the myriad warehouses in Metro Manila.
With the proposed automated system for purposes of the May 10, 2010 presidential and local elections, it means that the polling precincts will be clustered, not to exceed 5 precincts, with a ratio of 1,000 voters (maximum) per cluster. Each clustered precinct will be provided with one PCOS-OMR machine. Voting hours will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Voting is manual – by shading the spaces/boxes/circles opposite the candidates’ names in a special official ballot. Right after voting, the voter himself will feed the official ballot into the PCOS-OMR machine so that his vote will be counted. Accordingly, every time the machine completes counting a ballot, the result will be automatically transmitted to a central consolidating machine situated in the canvassing center. After 5 p.m. on election day and when all votes are supposed to be counted, the consolidated results will be printed out from the consolidating machine for canvassing and proclamation of winning candidates. While in the precinct level, machine-generated election returns will be printed in 30 copies for distribution to watchers and other stakeholders. National winning candidates will be known within 48 hours after voting.
Well, quite fast and efficient, huh?
That is, on the presumption that elections will push through as planned, without any hassles and glitches along the way. Or maybe, on the presumption that machines will neither conk out in the middle of counting nor hang up while counting a ballot. Or, just maybe, on the presumption that the Supreme Court will not issue a restraining order for the use of the machines in which, if issued, inevitably, we’re back to square one – manual elections.
Whatever detractors say, I say we go automated, all the way. Its time to move on. Its time to try out new things for a change. We used to be one of the top countries in Asia, we can still do it now by automating our elections and doing some other noble things. Bottom line is, we showed the world the magic of people power during EDSA 1. What will keep us from showing other powers with magical effects as well? Go Filipinos, let us vote wisely come May 10, 2010…
Above are what appear to be the ballot boxes for PCOS-OMR counting machines
Based on my experience last 2007 during the National and Local canvassing, we consumed 2 to 3 weeks counting and it takes 1o to 14 hours daily, wheeeeewww…I was quite lethargic by that time.
We hope and pray that there will be an honest and fair counting of votes using the said Machine on this coming May 10, 2010 National and Local Elections.
I choose neither of the two. Manually operated Election or not, I’m certain that it would still lead to nowhere. I’ve heard Juana Change said that”If the Election goes digital, the cheating goes digital too,” and I, indisputably, agree with her. Some of the machines might encounter malfunctions in the middle of the said activity and there might be cases that the operators themselves would try to change the number of votes for certain candidates who had paid them (secretly). Computer Programs and Systems nowadays are easily invaded by professional hackers or scammers. Even a fifteen-year old teenager can hack any website so it isn’t a surprise if the nastiest candidate would be elected as the nation’s president. But I hope that the 2010 election would be different from before. If possible, kick-out those biased individuals who only swallow money instead of keeping nationalism.
People need to know the true meaning of democracy- its boundaries and benefits. Genuine egalitarianism is what we need where the nation itself offers us the right to know the phenomena occurring inside and outside of each government facilities and where all the resolutions made by the president is in favor with God and its people, and is not monopolized. God Bless Us all
Bottom Lines
Reply:
August 16th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Hi. star. Thanks for the comment.
Yup. definitely, counting will be in a flash. Precinct results will be known shortly after voting hours (7 am to 6 p.m.) The Board of Canvassers will no longer wait for the Election returns from the BEI’s. The results will be transmitted from the precinct after finalizing the counting made by the PCOS-OMR. Same transmitted results are the bases for canvassing…
Well, we will just cross our fingers, though…
Bottom Lines
Reply:
August 18th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Hi. Lolli. Thanks for the reply.
They say its hard to teach old dogs with new tricks. Its even harder to deprive daylight robbers of their source of income. Elections hereof are moneymaking ventures for them.
Our leaders make it appear that an election is a valid exercise of the citizens’ political rights and a n essential aspect of democracy. Give me a break. Its happy time for them. Its a circus.
Hence, with your young but assertive mind, you can do a lot more things to improve the system at your level. Who knows, someday, you’ll end up as one of the commissioners of the COMELEC…lol ,,, By then, we expect changes through you…
Try reading Windy’s comment. He’s got more…
Hi Bottom Lines,
I do not know what added value Automated Voting ala Digital Technology does for the National Elections – be it in the Philippines or anywhere else.
It is somewhat similar to how the Italian Mafia “legitimised” their operations in America.
If things cannot be done accurately and honestly with the Manual method, the Philippine Electoral College of Decision Makers ought to fix it and not venture into something totally new and untested.
This is another one that belongs to the “treating the symptoms and not cause”.
So, more money will be spent albeit the creation of additional jobs compared to the massive unemployment in the Country.
In the field of that Technology, there’s plenty of “Indian Braves” but no Chief. It is a can of Digital worms that often leaves those who have the knowledge of Computer Science at variance with one another.
Remember ex-President Bush’s second term re-election was the first time America went Automated and we all know the problems America had with it.
Simply – with rampant money politics and that manual counts are deemed inaccurate, I have serious doubts that machines will solve it.
DAMNocracy at its working best!
Bottom Lines
Reply:
August 18th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Hi, windy. Thanks for the comment.
For whatever it is worth, we’ve got to try automated elections for 3 reasons. One, there was a law passed (Automated Elections Law) mandating our agency to conduct the same come May 2010. Two, a contract had already been entered into by COMELEC and Smartmatic-TIM, Inc. , the latter being the winning bidder for one of the most transparent and the most stringent bidding process undertaken by the COMELEC. And three, budget was already earmarked by Congress (P11.3 B) for purposes of automation. Hence, there is no escaping. We just have to implement the said law. However, if and when things won’t work as planned, at least, by then, we’ll know another way of doing a failure of elections..
But seriously, this automation is only a first step towards modernization of our elections here…Modernization of polling is one of the missions-visions of our agency…
[...] read his opinion and know more about the Automated Elections come May 10, [...]
Hi BottomLines,
I do understand the three reasons you have explained. I hope I am not coming across and being cantankerous or intransigent over the matter. Some more dark thoughts. LOL!
The Philippines needs not a modern system for its National Elections. The Philippine politicians need to return to basic moral values and not flout the laws of the Country.
Machines neither guard against despicable human behavior nor does it in anyway assure honesty.
So, It looks like a conspiracy to fool the voters through the introduction and the use of something they do not quite understand. Then, it’s the fault of the machines while the suspicions and allegations of foul play will be up for more endless and useless talk because the common man will never understand how this automated system computes. Result? The conniving politicians are free of blame.
Automated Elections is a sheer waste of the taxpayers funds. Some people are en-richening their bank accounts with its introduction.
I have never been to India . Therefore, I cannot say how it is done there. But I have been to Indonesia frequently over the past 10 years. Indonesia is the fourth largest population in the World. By comparison to the Philippines, Indonesia would have a greater need for an Automated Election. Indonesian Corruption – it is well known, yet they will not waste finance, resources and energy since they are able to maintain a “dignified” National Elections without Automation. Besides, the Indonesians have shown improvement at their National Elections as they courageously fight corruption especially amongst their politicians and Government employed servants.
The Philippines faces brown outs randomly – everyday. The Philippine Government hasn’t a clue to ensure that there is sufficient Energy to support Automated Elections before, during and after the event.
Granted, purchase of back up Energy resources will be in their plans. Great way for the entire Country to go purchasing for the needed fuel generators just for the occasion – provided it works and the generators do not get misappropriated.
Frankly, if the moral fibre of dishonest and unscrupulous Philippine politicians does not redeem itself, modernisation clearly is not the solution.
Simple rule of thumb logic. When a problem cannot be contained and dealt with, more and new variables should never be added to the existing condition.
Bull’s eye Windy!
Unquestionably, you got it where it hurts and I concur entirely with what you said. If I were to personally choose, we do our elections viva voce Lol That way, we save the billions of pesos allocated in every elections…
I think that automated system will help people a lot.Now,it will not require over a week for the results to be announced.But still,we should be watchful…Hoping for a clean and honest election.
This new voting system would really help our country not to experience a dirty way of electing leaders again. Even some people concluded that this type of system may not be trusted, but still the error (I think) is now less this time. the coping with the machine is just our first try and this problem would settle in a matter of knowledge and a good practice.
P.S. are there any books related to this topic? I am looking forward for your reply, it would really help the succession of my term/research paper. thank you and God bless!
Bottom Lines
Reply:
May 30th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Hi, Jikka Antonnette.
Bottom Lines
Reply:
May 30th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Hi, Jikka.
Thanks for the comment. It had been ages since I posted any item. I have a “sequel” to the post, in the near future, hopefully. Nonetheless, it’s nice to know someone here likes to do a research on the automated elections. I am also planning to do my MPA thesis on the topic.
Truth is, we in the COMELEC feel that the automated elections on May 10, 2010 was our “final practice” . There had been glitches here and there, but they say “all is well that ends well” and that’s what happened in our place. We were able to proclaim the winning local candidates in 2 days, a feat we never experienced before. And so, it works. PCOS works, CCS works and everybody here quite happy with the results.
Except, of course the “coalition of losers” who now wants to test the cf cards and count manually the ballots counted by the PCOS machines…well, talk of free media exposure for the next elections…
Anyway, thanks for the comment…All the best!
Patrickstarj