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E-mailThe use of automated polls removes the need for quick count operations, said Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez.
“The quick count would not be applicable because what could be faster than the official count now? The official count now would basically be the system used for the quick count in the past,” he said.
“The reason there was a quick count then was because there was a slow count, the one from Comelec,” he added. “Now, there is no more slow count.”
In past elections, televised quick counts were conducted alongside the official counting of ballots to update the public with “partial and unofficial” results. The actual poll results traditionally took weeks to come out.
According to Jimenez, this will all change this year as the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines will be able to finish tallying the ballots in under 48 hours.
At the end of the voting period, the PCOS machines will print out eight election returns and electronically transmit the results to the Comelec server, the national, provincial, and municipal boards of canvassers, and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP), one of the poll watchdogs.
The results will also be made available to the public through the Comelec website.
“You can do your own quick count,” said Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal. “You can download the data, any Juan Dela Cruz can do his or her own quick count."
Some poll watch groups however, have insisted that there is still a need for an outside body to count the ballots.
“We’re not after the speed of the results but the accuracy and veracity of the results,” said National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) spokesman Eric Alvia. “We’ve been doing that for the past 27 years now."
Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez also pointed out that there is no guarantee that the number of votes on the printed election returns would be the same as that counted during the canvassing.
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