What is Automated Election?
Automated Election is a process that is using an automated system, which is the appropriate technology for voting, counting, consolidating, canvassing, transmission of election results, and other processes in the conduct of electoral exercises.
Advantages of the system to this coming 2010 election:
• There will be no ballot box snatching as the ERs are transmitted electronically for canvassing
• There is less work for the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI)
• If all precincts are connected, national results can be produced within one hour after the close of voting
• There is automated tally of votes at the city/municipal level
• The Direct Recording Equipment (DRE) can include an automated voter validation system
• Canvassing at the city/municipal and provincial levels is almost instantaneous
• There is an instantaneous tally of votes at the precinct level
• Ballots are pre-printed and voters simply mark choices
MAJOR CHANGES FROM THE MANUAL SYSTEM
1. No writing of names - All candidates' names are pre-printed on the ballot. The entire voter would have to do to indicate his vote is to shade the oval corresponding to the name of the candidate of his choice.
2. Ballots are not counted in the polling place - After the closing of the polls, the ballots will be brought to the centralized counting center to be counted by the machines.
3. There are added security features at different levels - Aside from the usual built-in securities in the current manual system, there would be additional security features in the following levels: printing of ballots, shipment, counting and canvassing
4. Minimum human intervention - Human intervention is limited to telling the machine to: start and stop counting the ballots, start saving the results in a diskette (or any data storage device), and start printing the results. And appreciation of ballots is entirely done by the machine.
Now, regarding to the bidding of the automated system, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was awarded the P11.3-billion contract for the automation of next year’s elections to the consortium of Smartmatic International and Total Information Management Corp.
Smarmatic International Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Smart¬matic International Holdings, BV of The Netherlands. The firm was founded more than a decade ago as a research and development group specializing in systems integration. Smartmatic has organized elections in several regions around the world, including South America, the Car¬ribean, the United States and Asia. Smartmatic was also the system provider for the 2007 Autonomous Region in Muslim Minda¬nao elections. Of the seven consortia, only Smartmatic/TIM was declared by the committee as qualified in terms of financial and technical requirements and eligibility.
Total Information Management (TIM), on the other hand, is a Filipino-owned information technology company that operates nationwide and offers various information-technology (IT) services and products. According to its website, TIM was founded in 1985 as a supplier for re¬certified and refurbished IBM mainframes and peripheral equipment. Since then, it has grown to be the country’s leading technology services company.
However, 2010 elections may be too near though and any automation efforts, the planning and preparation for it must start as early as this year so that it couldn’t be rushed because it will only create uncertain situation that harms the organization and so that it can deliver a better service to the people. And if the automated election system was done right and securely, it may be curb cheating. Perhaps it will be best also to do some trials on 2010 in key areas like Metro Manila to begin with so that we can really see if its really good and reliable and not gonna be electronic voting but an electronic cheating too? This therefore can be no difference with the Manual system too, if it happens.
As what I have read, electronic voting could also have some cases of problems, errors and failures. These cases included: uninitialized machines, which made ballot stuffing possible; votes not counted or lost; candidates’ votes reversed; contests not counted; ballots not counted; the wrong winner comes out; allowing voting more than once; vote totals that exceed the number of registered voters; negatives votes; unauthorized software replacement; and other problems.
The problems are also causes by the complex technologies, such as: software bugs, which are always present even in high-quality software; hardware problems such as miscalibration; environmental stresses that may worsen hardware problems; poor or flawed design; human errors; and malicious tampering.
Hope so it will not happen, lets us be honest pls…!
Moreover, according to what I have research, the real works of the automated election begins on the Smartmatic. They are assured and confident that they will gonna do it successfully with the security and transparency of our votes in this kind of election. The other thing that they will going to do are the following:
• Smartmatic will be going to different voting centers to check local conditions, including the electrical and communication lines.
• The company was willing to make public the source code, especially because it was one of the requirements of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and so that politicians and political parties can be confident with the system. In addition, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) would be tasked to protect source code, a security feature to help prevent cheating.
• Smartmatic assured that under its system, Comelec would be able to declare winners within 36 hours after the voting period.
• Smartmatic will be providing for the 82,200 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to automate voting nationwide.
• Smartmatic assured that were safe from hacking and the system works without any human intervention once the machines are deployed. And the machines were to be made would be open to media, official election observers and members of the advisory council.
But inspite of this assurance that we have in Smartmatic, there’s many issues arose before the contract signing of the two companies. These issues are:
• The TIM president Jose Mari Antuñez had told Melo that TIM was withdrawing from its partnership with Smartmatic, citing “irreconcilable differences” and “loss of confidence.”
• TIM lawyer De Borja said that his client had decided to sever its ties with Smartmatic because the foreign firm wanted to have an upper hand in decision-making.
• Borja maintained that TIM could not allow this because “down the road, we are the Filipino partner so if there is a problem, we’ll be the one that will be left to answer.”
• Comelec chairman Jose Melo announced that money was the root of the fallout between the two companies, jeopardizing the automation of next year’s local and national polls.
• There were reports that TIM was demanding some P500 million from Smartmatic.
• Smartmatic international sales director Cesar Flores confirmed that TIM wanted “to have more control in the operations.”
• “ But it’s the requirements of the Comelec that the company with the biggest experience in automation – which in this case is Smartmatic – is the one that has to guarantee the technology, the software, the transmission and the operations of the elections so we are indeed in charge of the operations,” Flores added.
• And Antuñez told their foreign partner’s lawyers that their problems with their partnership could be solved if Smartmatic paid its local partner P500 million.
Because of these issues happened, there gonna have possible consequences and rumors that they can get for backing out, like
• If the two companies cannot push through with the automation contract, Melo admitted that next year’s elections might be done manually because the Comelec no longer has the time to convene a second bidding for a new supplier of machines.
• The entire consortium that was supposed to provide machines for the automation of next year’s national elections may face legal liabilities and civil damages following the withdrawal of TIM from its partnership with Smartmatic, according to Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera.
• There’s also rumor tells that it was TIM that was the guilty party. It threatened to file criminal and civil charges against TIM for backing out of the landmark project.
• And the Nacionalista Party headed by Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. warned that the withdrawal of the local partner of the consortium that would facilitate automated polls might just be part of the Arroyo administration’s grand scheme to cancel elections.
But, for only a few days the issue between the two companies was already resolved and the poll automation was back on track. In addition, the confirmation about this was delivered by a certain persons,
• According to the Smartmatic international sales director Cesar Flores, the two companies "have already signed all necessary documents for the incorporation of our joint venture corporation" which will implement the automation project.
• According to Jose Mari Antunez, president and chief executive of Total Information, confirmed that the consortium members had resolved their differences and agreed to "move forward".
• According to Melo, Smartmatic and TIM were able to settle their differences, but he refused to elaborate what happen because its just a private conversation for them. And he added that whatever internal arrangement that they have, it’s between them.
It’s really good and relief for me to hear about it coz, honestly I am so excited for it because I want to experience it. I’m really praying that there were no anomalies and cheatings that comes out during the election. And I’m sure that there’s many patrollers also out there that will watch and guide our votes for the common good of all the Filipinos. Ika nga, “Boto Mo, Ipatrol Mo”. I’m proud to be Pinoy!
References:
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/june/15/yehey/top_stories/20090615top3.html
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/163997/(Update)-Smartmatic-bags-P113-B-poll-automation-deal
http://hubpages.com/hub/Automated-Election-Are-we-ready
