The Philippine Online Chronicles

The automated elections: how to resolve potential problems

While you may already be familiar with how to vote in an automated election, there are a few technical problems that can occur before your vote gets counted and transmitted. This interactive guide to the May 2010 elections illustrates what can go wrong, what Commission on Election (COMELEC) has done, and what you can do to prevent further problems.  Many of these potential problems can be prevented by vigilance and your cooperation. Do your part to keep our elections clean by educating yourself about the voting process and keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity.

Bring an identification card, cheat list, extra felt-tip pens, and a flashlight.

Start watching this video for the automated election process

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

Step 1: Go to your respective precinct, fill out your ballot, and feed it to the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) Machine.

Voter shades his votes on the paper ballot

• What can go wrong: Each ballot is 25 inches long. Voters have to go through a lengthy list and shade up to 36 names (in municipalities), which may take time. Election officers may also not have enough felt tip pens for voters.
• What you can do: Prepare your list of candidates and bring a cheat sheet.  This will help you shade the ovals as fast as you can to give way to other voters.  Consider bringing extra felt tip pens and lending them to other voters.

Voter feeds ballot into the PCOS Machine

• What can go wrong: Each precinct may serve up to 1,000 voters - expect long lines.
• What COMELEC says: COMELEC will extend voting day until midnight if necessary.
• What you can do: To avoid standing in line for hours, go to your precinct early. All precincts will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

Voter feeds ballot into the PCOS Machine

• What can go wrong: Power outage!
• What COMELEC says: PCOS units have batteries that can last for 16 hours. For complete loss of power at the start of election day, precinct will resort to manual voting.
• What you can do: Bring flashlights so you can accomplish your ballot in the dark. If a machine is not working, alert the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) and Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) volunteers.

Voter feeds ballot into the PCOS Machine

• What can go wrong: A ballot is rejected.
• What you can do: Make sure your ballot is neat and free of folds or crumples. If the machine spits out your ballot, insert it a second time. If the PCOS still rejects the ballot, return the ballot to the BEI Chairman.

Voter feeds ballot into the PCOS Machine

• What can go wrong: Despite keeping your ballot clean and straight, the machine jams. This time, it’s the machine’s fault.
• What COMELEC says: There are 6,380 spare PCOS machines that can be used if a unit is not working.
• What you can do: Hold on to your ballot and report the error to the BEI.

Voter feeds ballot into the PCOS Machine

• What can go wrong: Pre-marked legitimate ballots might have already been fed into the machine.
• What COMELEC says: Testing and sealing of the PCOS machine will be done at least three days before election day to ensure that it will not be tampered.
• What you can do: Take part in the testing and sealing procedures to make sure that no pre-marked ballots are entered. Help secure the polling places where the machines are installed.

Voter feeds ballot into the PCOS Machine

• What can go wrong: A ballot may be rendered void or unreadable by the machine due to markings or scratches on the security marks located on the paper’s edge. Overvoting, or choosing more than the allotted numbers of candidates per position, will also cause your ballot to be void.
• What you can do: Make sure not to write anything on the security marks.  Shade the ovals fully and double-check to see if you selected the right number of candidates per position. Again, it helps to bring a cheat sheet to avoid these mistakes.
  

Step 2: Once your ballot has been accepted, the PCOS machine scans the ballot.

PCOS machine scans the ballot

• What can go wrong: The PCOS machine may not read the voter’s choices correctly; it only gives a confirmation message that the voter’s ballet has been accepted. COMELEC has disabled the feature that will verify that the machine has interpreted the voter’s choice correctly, violating Art. 7 of RA 9369 (Automated Election System Law).
• What COMELEC says: According to COMELEC, verification of the actual votes is not necessary because it is the voter who shaded his or her own ballot. Besides, the process will take too long. Voters will have to trust that the machine will read their votes correctly.
• What you can do: You can join others in pressuring the COMELEC to enable the verification feature of the machine to ensure the transparency of the voting process.  On election day, make sure you see the confirmation message on the PCOS screen before leaving the polling station.
  

Step 3: As soon as the PCOS machine is done scanning the ballots, the BEI will close the polls to prevent additional ballots from being inserted.

Polls are closed

• What can go wrong: The polls are still open end of the voting period.
• What you can do: Stay behind to watch and make sure that no other ballots are being fed into the machine.

Polls are closed

• What can go wrong: If there is a 100% voter turnout, the PCOS machine may not be able to hold all 1,000 paper ballots.
• What COMELEC says: COMELEC says that all ballots will fit into the unit, but this claim has not yet been tested.
• What you can do: Make sure that all ballots are intact and that the PCOS machines are not opened at any time.

Step 4: The PCOS Machine starts the tallying process automatically.

The PCOS counts the votes

• What can go wrong: At the beginning of election day, the PCOS machine should show a zero report. Instead, the machine prints a summary that shows the total number of votes of each candidate.
• What COMELEC says: Two or three days before the elections, every single PCOS machine will be calibrated.  There is no way for a zero report to not get printed on election day.
• What you can do: If the PCOS machine does not print a zero report, poll watchers should contact the BEI and ask for a new machine. This will prevent the possible rigging of votes.

The PCOS counts the votes

• What can go wrong: A discrepancy in numbers, where the number of votes do not match the voter turnout.
• What COMELEC says: To countercheck the results, COMELEC will randomly visit precincts and do a manual count of ballots.
• What you can do: Examine the printed election returns (ER) posted in the precinct to see if the voter turnout and number of votes match. Alert the poll watchers and the media if you spot any discrepancies.

The PCOS counts the votes

• What can go wrong: The machine does not print copies of the ER. Ideally, it should print eight copies of the ER before the transmission and 22 more copies afterwards.  There should be a total of 30 ER copies.
• What COMELEC says: Each PCOS unit has a compact flash (CF) card where the images of the scanned ballots and voting results are stored.  If this happens, the CF card can be easily removed and inserted in another PCOS machine, which will then print the ERs.
• What you can do: If this happens, follow the BEI and keep your eye on the CF card to prevent any switching. Make sure the ERs are printed properly.

Step 5: After the ballots are counted and ERs are successfully printed, the election officer will insert a transmission cable onto the machine. The PCOS unit electronically transmits the results to the municipal board of canvassers, the central server, and servers for political parties, KBP, and PPCRV.

• What can go wrong: Poor signal or no signal, preventing the unit from sending the results.
• What COMELEC says: The BEI can find a better satellite signal or change the SIM cards. If this does not work, the BEI will take the CF card of the unit and go to the nearest precinct. A functioning PCOS will then be used to transmit the results.
• What you can do: Follow the BEI and keep your eye on the CF card to prevent any switching. If the PCOS unit is being transported, make sure nobody removes the ballots from the machine.

Step 6: Using a consolidation/canvassing system server (CCS), the municipal or city board of canvassers will consolidate the results from the precincts. This will then be electronically transmitted to the provincial board of canvassers together with the certificate of canvass (COC). Once the results are counted, the COMELEC can declare the winning candidates at the city and municipal level.

Results are consolidated and transmitted

• What can go wrong: A software and hardware failure prevents board of canvassers from consolidating and printing the results.
• What COMELEC says: The CCS of another municipality or city can be used.
• What you can do: Accompany the transfer to the nearest municipality and monitor the canvassing to prevent any anomalies.

Results are consolidated and transmitted

• What can go wrong: The secret keys used by the board of canvassers to sign COCs and Statements of Votes may be stolen or copied.
• What COMELEC says: The keys are encrypted for security and kept under COMELEC’s control. However, the security of the keys have not been tested by a third party IT consultant.
• What you can do: Join others and pressure the COMELEC to have the source code reviewed by independent IT experts, as per the legal requirement.

Results are consolidated and transmitted

• What can go wrong: There is no mechanism that allows the public to view the consolidated results, causing voters to question the credibility and accuracy of the votes.
• What you can do: You can ask the city board of canvassers or the municipality to hook up an LCD projector onto the CCS laptop. This will allow the results to be projected on a wall or screen for everyone to see.

Step 7: The results from cities and municipalities are consolidated by the Provincial Board of Canvassers. These are then transmitted to the National Board of Canvassers. Once the results are counted, COMELEC can declare winners at the provincial level.

Results are consolidated and transmitted

• What can go wrong: Due to a software and hardware failure, the Board of Canvassers is unable to consolidate the results and print out COCs.
• What COMELEC says: As in the municipal level, the CCS of the nearest province can be used. The central COMELEC server can also do back-up canvassing.
• What you can do: Accompany the transfer and monitor the transmission of results.

From here, the results will be transferred to the National Board of Canvassers. The latter will then consolidate the results and declare the winners for national positions.

Here is another video on "Five Easy Steps sa Pagboto sa Automated Election System."

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

Lauren is the founder/co-owner of Ukay Manila and a writer for the POC’s Beauty and Fashion Channel. She keeps a beauty/fashion blog at iambourgeois.com and a personal blog at laurganism.com.