Comelec Automated Voting System Testing

With the automated voting system virtually eliminating vote-padding and -shaving (dagdag-bawas), poll watchers will be focusing more on voter behavior rather than fraudsters in the May elections, according to the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

Poll watchers will explain to voters how to fill out the ballot and use the electronic voting machine, said the PPCRV, the official citizens’ arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), as it unveiled Thursday its guide for poll watchers.

The PPCRV will be sending out its volunteers to campaign against vote-buying and intimidation, which the automated elections system cannot solve.

The country will be conducting its first-ever fully automated election on May 10, where machines will read the marks made by voters on the ballots, count the votes and send the results to the canvassing centers by digital phone or satellite transmission.

No human intervention

“The counting, canvassing and proclamation process for the 2010 national and local elections will be completely automated. There is absolutely no human intervention, and no more room for mistakes and fraud,” the PPCRV guide said.

In the old system, poll watchers had to physically monitor and check the election returns and the statement of votes for any signs of tampering by election officials. This will not happen on May 10, PPCRV said.

The PPCRV said its volunteers will focus on encouraging voters not to be intimidated by politicians and not to sell their votes, election offenses which cannot be controlled by machines.

Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez Thursday said minor glitches in the automated polls could decide the results of the May elections, especially if the races are tight.

“What I’m looking at is the scenario that the small fraction might be decisive in altering the final result,” Golez said at a hearing Thursday of the House oversight committee.

Nightmare

He noted that three presidential candidates are figuring in a close fight, according to the surveys.

“That’s going to be a nightmare if we still have the one percent or so that will be manually canvassed,” he said.

Senators Benigno Aquino III and Manuel Villar Jr. are in a statistical tie in the race for the presidency, based on the latest Pulse Asia survey. Deposed President Joseph Estrada is a far third.

Golez said there were many ways in which the voting and canvassing could be hampered, and for cheating to occur, such as a breakdown of the counting machines stopping the voting.

A tight race, coupled with glitches, could have people speculating about the actual outcome of the polls, Golez said.

Contingency measures

But the Comelec and Smartmatic, the technology provider for the polls, assured legislators there were contingency measures in place.

Cesar Flores, president of Smartmatic Asia, said the possibility of cheating under the automated election system was nil.

He downplayed the damage that cell phone signal jammers could do, saying jammers can only delay the transmission of results, but cannot stop the voting or alter the votes cast.

And even if someone does manage to cheat, this can be easily detected because he cannot do so without leaving a trail, according to Flores.

Cheats will leave trail

It would not be possible to send a different signal to the server or enter false transmission results, he said. Any data transmitted by the counting machines has an encryption without which the data will be rejected, he said.

Each machine also has a digital signature, which is necessary for transmissions to be completed, he said.

There are also various ways to verify the results transmitted, said Flores. The filled-out ballots could always be re-checked in case of a dispute or discrepancies. The copies of the election returns can also be used to check the results transmitted to the server, he added.

“The system is completely auditable … It’s impossible to cheat without leaving a trail,” he said.