The Philippine Online Chronicles

With more than 60 days before the historic automated election on May 10, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is doubling its efforts in informing the public about the nature and conduct of the first-ever automated polls. While much has been said about the automated election system, many are still in awe and intimidated by the many technical terms often associated with the AES.

Here’s an "Electionary" of the most common terms that Filipino voters must know.

AES – (Automated Election System) is a voting process in which votes are cast and counted using a machine and/or computer. It is supposed to make the voting and counting process convenient and efficient. Apparently, voters are worried if automating the polls will actually be efficient and or convenient given the delayed election calendar followed by the COMELEC.

Ballot – the paper on which votes are cast. For this year’s automated election, the ballot will be more than two feet long or 25 inches. It lists the national and local candidates as well as 187 accredited partylist groups. Only one ballot will be alloted for each voter so mistakes or erasures should be avoided. The PCOS machine will only read ballots with the appropriate security markings. According to COMELEC spokesperson James Jimenez, the ballot will have five security features: the paper itself, the UV ink from the COMELEC and Smartmatic-TIM, regular barcode, Comelec security markings and unique precinct-based numbers.

BEI – (Board of Election Inspector) the people in charge of every polling precinct. They will be the ones who will verify the voter’s identification in each precinct. BEI’s are usually public school teachers. With automation at hand, BEI’s and the voters are worried if elections will actually push through.

BGAN – (Broadband Global Area Network) or the satellite transmitter, is a device that will be used for areas that doesn’t have enough signal to transmit data from the PCOS machine to the main server. This will be used for back up in case the failed lack of signal becomes a problem on the actual election day.

BOC – (Board of Canvassers) is in charge of collating the transmitted results on every PCOS machine in each precinct in a city or municipality. After counting the results, the BOC will deliver these to the Provincial Election Supervisor or the Election Officers in each area.

CAC – (COMELEC Advisory Council) this council is composed of people who recommend the most appropriate technology to be used in the AES. They assist in the systems planning, development, testing and evaluation processes. Heading the council will be the chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), Sec. Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III, with members including the DOST, the Department of Education, a member of the academe, three members representing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professional organizations, and two members of non-government organizations.

CCS – (Consolidation/Canvassing System) is the automated system used to collate the votes cast from each precinct to the Election Officers to determine the results of the elections.

CenPEG – (Center for People Empowerment in Governance) is an organization which promotes people empowerment in governance. The center conducts research, education and trainings as well as community-based projects that help people participate as key players in governance. The center primary advocates for securing political and electoral changes to help ensure people participation and nurture a culture of integrity in governance.

CER – (Consortium on Electoral Reforms) is a network of organizations and individuals who encourage people’s participation in fraud-free elections. They believe in democracy through electoral reforms.

COC – (Certificate of Canvass) a document containing the total votes in words and in figures obtained by each candidate in a province, municipality or city.

COMELEC – (Commission on Elections) the main government office responsible for the conduct of clean, efficient and honest elections. However, numerous corrupt and deceitful scandals – the most famous is the Hello Garci scandal involving former COMELEC commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last 2004 presidential elections. After numerous anomalies, the COMELEC is now dealing with issues on glitches on the May automated polls.

EMS – (Elections Management System) the AES has its corresponding EMS which enables an automated election to function with precision. The operation of the system may vary depending on what will suit the AES.

ER – (Election Return) a document showing the date of the election, the municipality in which it is held, and other data, and containing the votes in words and in figures for each candidate in a precinct

GIS – (Geographical Information System) is a system that analyzes data about a specific area. The COMELEC currently lacks a functional GIS on every polling precinct location. Therefore they are not aware of what problems might occur to the PCOS machine or its functions due to the location of the election precinct.

Kontra Daya 2010 (anti-fraud) – is a network of individuals and organizations committed in ensuring that the country will have a fraud-free election. It primary aims to educate people about AES and its vulnerabilities; it updates people on the latest happenings regarding the automated polls. The organization encourages people to be vigilant and to be prepared in case fraud or failure of elections will push through.

LENTE – (Legal Network for Truthful Elections) is a nationwide network of lawyers, law students, paralegals and volunteers engaged in election monitoring, a specific way for lawyers to contribute in the country’s nation-building. Their objectives are to educate people on voting and upholding honest elections by conducting public education activities. They advocate for electoral reforms to renew the people’s trust on the Philippine electoral system.

NAMFREL – (National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections) is an independent organization upholding fair and free elections. It serves as a poll watchdog.

NPO – (National Printing Office) is a government agency whose primary role is to print, bind and distribute official public documents, including the election ballots.

PCOS – Precinct Count Optical Scan, the machine used to count the votes cast by the voters, every clustered precinct has its own PCOS machine. The voter, after casting his votes, will insert his ballot inside this machine. The PCOS machine has two cameras that will record the cast votes. After the elections it will transmit the data to the main server to easily proclaim the results.

PCVL – (Posted Computerized Voters List) this is the list of registered voters in a precinct. The voter must first look for the PCVL to determine his precinct number and sequence number.

PPCRV – (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) they are one of COMELEC’s accredited election citizen’s arm watchdog. Last January, PPCRV asked COMELEC to junk NAMFREL’s petition for accreditation so they will be entitled to the 4^th and 27^th copy of the election returns.

RA 9369 – (Republic Act 9369) or the Poll Automation Law of May 2010

RMAC – (Random Manual Audit Committee) according to RA 9369, a random manual audit, will be done by the RMAC, of 1 precinct per district shall be conducted to test the integrity of the machines. NAMFREL wants to manually audit the cast votes but according to COMELEC, it isn’t necessary.

Signal jammer – are equipment used to disrupt telecommunication signal at a certain area. With the lack of signal in many sites in the country, even in urban areas such as in Taguig and Pateros, the discovered 5000 signal jammers will definitely not help this May automated elections.

SIM – (Subscriber Identity Module) is the identification device of the PCOS machine to the main server. Each PCOS machine will be given three SIM cards, from different networks, to supposedly ensure proper operation. However, on the mock elections done in Pateros, all three SIM cards didn’t work.

Smartmatic-TIM – (Smartmatic-Total Information Management) is a Venezuelan ICT company was the winning consortium for the first automated elections in the country. The P7.2 billion contract between COMELEC and Smartmatic-TIM was signed last year despite petitions that the two parties didn’t conform to some requirements to the bidding.

SOV – (Statement of Votes) a document containing detailed entries of the votes obtained by each candidate in each of the precincts in a municipality or in each of the municipalities in a province

TEC – (Telecommunication Engineering Center) will provide the certificate of assurance that each PCOS machine underwent quality tests and may be used for the automated polls.

UV Ink - (Ultraviolet Ink) UV ink marks is one of the five security feature of the ballot. The ballot should have an invisible to the naked eye UV ink mark to be counted by the PCOS machine. This would reject photocopied ballots to the counting machine.

VSAT – (Very Small Aperture Terminals) VSATs, like the BGAN, use satellite connection to send data from one location to the other. The satellite equipment is used in sending credit card and broadband data. Smartmatic-TIM proposed to COMELEC to buy more VSAT as well as the BGAN to ensure transmission of data from sites with unstable signals.

With this ‘electionary’ at hand, it would be easier for voters and the public to identify terms which we’ll hear more in the coming weeks.

Photo by nikkacorsino c/o Flickr. Some rights reserved.