The Philippine Daily Inquirer should be commended for coming up with articles that show how easy and fuss free it will be to vote in May 2010 using the new automated election system.
Bring along ‘cheat sheets,’ voters urged
By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:06:00 03/08/2010
MANILA, Philippines—The key to a worry-free electronic vote is a “cheat sheet.”
Bathsheba Valenzuela considers herself an expert on automated voting and scoffs at people who say that using the 25-inch-long ballot and the voting machine is fraught with difficulties for senior citizens.
“It’s easy as long as you follow the instructions. I’m 58, yes, but why would it be difficult for me?” she said after participating in a mock election conducted by GMA News at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.
It was the first time that Valenzuela, a housewife, voted in a mock election.
The exercise was part of the network’s voter education campaign for the country’s first national computerized elections on May 10.
GMA News set up a simulated voting precinct, with voting areas and desks, ballot secrecy folders, sample ballots and Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.
Officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting were also present to answer questions from the public.
Valenzuela, who was accompanied by her 43-year-old friend, Fe Cisnero, said it took her less than five minutes to fill up her ballot and feed it into the counting machine.
All about shading oval
Noting that there were too many names on the ballot, Valenzuela and Cisnero said the trick was to have a “cheat sheet”—a prepared list of preferred candidates—so that not much time would be spent figuring out who to vote for.
“When you go and vote, you should be sure of your choices,” Cisnero said.
Instead of writing names, voters under the new system will just shade the oval space beside the candidates’ names.
The 8 x 25 inch ballot contains the names of all the candidates in national and local contests. The ballot for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is two inches longer.
After filling out the ballot, the voter then feeds it to the PCOS machine, which records and counts their marks. At the end of the voting day, the machine will print the election returns and transmit the results to canvassing centers.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the poll body realized that people were skeptical of the technology at first, attributing it to the “fear of unknown.”
Now that the poll body and its private sector partners are stepping up their education campaigns and the 82,200 electronic voting machines made by Smartmatic-TIM Corp. have arrived, that apprehension is slowly slipping away, he said.
Now that the public is getting a chance to see the machines and use it, they have come to realize that they won’t have to do much with the paper and the PCOS machine. “The technology is very familiar to them,” Jimenez said.
Comelec officials advised voters to carefully shade their ballots and refrain from putting ambiguous marks or folding it, otherwise the PCOS machine will spit out the paper.
Don’t play with ballot
Leo Lim, a Comelec assistor, said there were voters who made ambiguous marks to see how the machine would react.
“They should not play with it on Election Day,” he said, noting that it would make the voting time longer.
If the machine refuses to read the ballot, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) and the voter will have to check the ballot for stray or ambiguous markings.
The voter is allowed to feed the ballot into the machine four times, according to the Comelec’s General Instructions for BEIs.
James Barcelona, a cook, said he believed that the technology would make it harder for election manipulators to tamper with the election results.
“It’s easier than the manual. It is less confusing and it’s fast,” he said.
March rolls in on good news — ALL OF THE SMARTMATIC-TIM PCOS MACHINES HAVE BEEN DELIVERED.
The delivery of the PCOS Machines are the most tangible sign that the 2010 Automated Elections is pushing through despite all the brickbats thrown and predictions of doom that were divined.
All 82,200 PCOS Machines in the Country – SMARTMATIC TIM
MANILA , Philippines (Feb 27, 2010) — On Saturday February 27th, all the required 82,200 PCOS machines are already in the country.
Cesar Flores, President of Smartmatic Asia Pacific said that the last 13,580 units of PCOS machines arrived at the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) on February 27 completing the required number of machines to be used for the May 10 automated elections.
“We are proud to announce that all the PCOS machines are already in the Philippines, and the implementation calender is being kept as planned” Flores said.
A shipment of 7,200-PCOS aboard a Yan Ming vessel (YMLU4831562) docked at the ICTSI terminal at 7:00AM today. A few hours later, a Wan Hai vessel (WHLU4082939) laden with 6,380-PCOS units arrived for docking.
Flores said that with all the PCOS machines already in the country, the full automation of the May elections is guaranteed.
According to Flores, SMARTMATIC TIM had consistently shown good faith by its compliance with deadlines.
“This latest delivery means that all the 76,000 precincts all over the Philippines will each get a PCOS machine, with another 6,000 spare machines on standby,” Flores said, adding that “We reiterate our commitment to the Filipino people: the automation system will provide fast and accurate elections.”
But despite the good news, certain personalities claiming to be guardians and watchdogs of automated elections are expected to pick nits and bones.
Their real objective is not to ensure that the country’s first automated elections happens without a hitch, but rather, to scuttle and derail this historic elections for a number of reasons:
- so that they can put in place their favored automated election system which doesn’t pass the requirements set by RA9369.
- so that their political patron can take advantage of the many flaws of a manual election. (There is actually an exchange of e-mails showing the deep connection between so-called watchdogs and a certain candidate.)
- so that they can promote and establish themselves as the foremost authorities in automated election fraud, thereby reaping tons of cash in exchange for their expert opinions in whatever electoral disputes that will be filed.
DJ Mo Twister appears in this 1 minute TV commercial that SHOWS people how to vote using the automated election system or Precinct Count Optical Scan (P-COS) machine.
When I heard him blabbering about it last year, it took me some time to figure out what he really meant. Only by watching the guys at Smartmatic-TIM demonstrate the PCOS machine on TV did I really understand what DJ Mo Twister was saying.
Now, perhaps, much to the relief of everyone out there who wants to know how to vote using an automated election machine, the Comelec has come out with this ad.
A recent article from Reuters identified “Five political risks to watch in the Philippines” and these are:
1. The successor to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
2. Internal security
3. Corruption and the rule of law
4. Government effectiveness
5. Environment
Identified as a crucial element to watch out for under the heading of ” SUCCESSOR TO PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO” is if the country’s electoral system produces a clear and credible winner for the position of President in the May 2010 polls.
Here’s that excerpt:
The Philippines elects a new president on May 10, and many of the candidates are already making populist policy promises. The race remains wide open and there is no clear favourite at this stage despite the son of revered former President Cory Aquino taking a strong lead in opinion polls. Former President Joseph Estrada is also among the candidates, which is a worry for markets because of his lack of fiscal discipline and stories of policy being formulated during late-night drinking sessions with gambling buddies. Other frontrunners are billionaire property developer-turned-politician Manuel “Manny” Villar, and former defence chief Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro. [ID:nSP510426]
What to watch:
– The candidates and their platforms. As clear frontrunners emerge, their policy pledges and the implications for investment, governance and security will impact markets. [ID:nMAN118467]
– The stance of leading candidates on fiscal management will be a particular focus, given the necessity of boosting revenues and curbing spending to reduce the budget deficit.
– The worst-case scenario for markets would be a failed election that does not produce a clear and credible winner. This could be because of severe election violence and intimidation, or possible problems in a new automated voting system that is being tried for the first time. This outcome would weaken the peso <PHP=> and the stock market <.PSI>, with some analysts saying the main stock index could tumble below 2,600 points. [ID:nSGE60K025]
What strikes me is that despite the obvious importance of ensuring the success of the country’s first ever automated elections, more attention has been given to the possibility of its failure than the clear and definite strides made toward ensuring that poll automation runs without a hitch in May.
In November and December last year, whenever Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said that he was worried over what he virtually described as a “lack of progress” in the automation of the May polls, the statement hogged the frontpages of newspapers and first gaps of broadcast news programs. In a way, it seemed that the Comelec was saying that if automated election failed, it would not be the fault of the Comelec and all blame would fall on the supplier — Smartmatic-TIM.
All considered, poll automation doesn’t have many friends and a lot more people would benefit from its dismal failure rather than its success.
Politicians, despite all their chest thumping about their personal integrity and calls for clean elections, would rather have manual elections because this would enable them to resort to their huge store of tried and tested formulas for winning at all costs — or prices, if you want to be direct about it.
Certainly, the hoards of middlemen and brokers of industry of “winning at all costs” certainly don’t want automated elections to succeed because there is no way to manipulate the results. You can manipulate the voters, for sure, but that would be a costlier enterprise than just waiting for the ballots to arrive at the canvassing centers and doing their magic in the comfort of a hotel. Money won’t change hands for an assured win at the polls, or at least, not as much.
As the election draws near, we think that what is more crucial is not spotting the kinks in poll automation and wailing that the world is about to end. What we ought to be doing is to plan out steps and make ready to ensure that it does succeed.
Poll watchers, instead of devoting their time to watching the tally of ballots at precincts, should be mobilized to ensure that everyone who can vote, actually goes out and vote. They should also re-orient themselves to reporting any untoward incidents (ballots and PCOS machines not being delivered to the precinct, violence, and other activities that would disrupt the order on elections day.)
If poll automation succeeds, it will be unlike other elections were only candidates win. If poll automation succeeds, every Filipino would have won a crucial victory against the proven evils of manual elections and be on the road towards a real, monumental change in political culture.
Smartmatic-TIM is, as of this moment, conducting the second round of field tests for its PCOS machines. This time around, the tests will be done in several schools in Pateros and Taguig.
Just like the previous field test, the Smartmatic-PCOS machines will be tested to see if it can read the ballots, count the votes, and transmit results. It will also see if the computers at the receiving end of the system will be able to receive and decode the transmitted data.
In the first round of field tests, the PCOS machines encountered difficulty in transmitting from a location in Lake Sebu which in a valley. Nevertheless, the Smartmatic-TIM people conducting the field tests overcame the transmission problem by using a B-GAN (which is the big brother equivalent of the usual broadband modem) and transmitted the data.
Such field tests are being conducted to find out or spot difficulties that might be encountered in May 2010 — when the actual elections will take place. Difficulties that are spotted during the field tests will be studied and remedies will be implemented either on the spot or through adjustments in the plans for the actual roll out of the automated election system.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer should be commended for coming up with articles that show how easy and fuss free it will be to vote in May 2010 using the new automated election system.
