Philippines’ First Automated Election
This coming May 2010, every Filipino will have their taste of the first ever automated election here in the Philippines. This is a very significant milestone in our country’s history given those long years of tedious manual election process that not only gives burden to our teachers and volunteers, but has also left doubtful and questionable election results.
Through the PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan System) machine, an automatic counting of votes will take place. This won’t only make the task of our teachers lighter, but would also lessen massive cheating during election. But, before anything else, we must know first how reliable this automated system is. Below are important facts and details about Smartmatic’s PCOS machine.
Basic Functions
- Takes a digital copy of the ballot and record it
- Counts the number of votes automatically
Note: The number of voters per precinct is already known by the machine. (There are only 7 precincts (data) per machine.)
Advantages
- Speeds up election process
- Lessens the doubt of the authenticity of the election results
Photo by Michael Sinjin Pineda
Reliability
A lot of pessimists are raising their eyebrows and are asking questions on how reliable this automated system is. Let’s check the following facts.
- PCOS machine and ballots are precinct specific - For security purposes the machine unit won’t read ballots that are not listed for that specific precinct.
- Ballots are equipped with security features - All ballots have unique bar codes and have ultraviolet ink (an invisible one) which will confirm its authenticity.
- The Data inside the machine is secured - A PCOS is a stand-alone machine. This means that it is not connected to a network. A network connection only occurs for 5 minutes every time an important update is being sent to the main server.
- 128 Bit Data Encryption - A 128 bit encryption means that there are 2 (raised to the power 128) - or 3.4 with 38 zeros after it - possible combinations that could access the data inside the machine. In layman’s term, it will be almost to impossible for a hacker to penetrate the system since that number of combinations can’t be processed within 5 minutes (the length of time the machine is allowed to connect to a network). This kind of data encryption is actually used by banks to maintain a 24/7 security to their automated teller machines.
Now that we already know how this automated system works, let’s proceed to the basic dos and don’ts in voting.
Rules in Voting
- Do not overvote - The machine won’t count your votes if you select candidates greater than the expected number (i.e overvoting for President)
- Undervoting is okay
- Fully shade each oval - In shading the oval for the candidate of your choice, you must fill it at least 50% so that the system would recognize it. If it’s less than 50%, then the machine will not recognize it and will consider the selection as nothing.
- Don’t put unnecessary markings on the ballot
More
- Precinct result is automatically transmitted to the Comelec website - This means that every time an update of votes will take place, the data will be automatically displayed to a web page that can be easily accessed by the public. This way, everyone can tally votes simultaneously.
- Initialization reports of votes are printed using a thermal paper - A thermal paper can last up to five years
- The overall election process will only take place within 11 hours
- PCOS Machine’s back-up battery will last from 14 to 16 hours - This is an emergency procedure if in case a black out will occur.
After reading the above facts and guidelines, all we need to do now is to be more vigilant and let’s make sure that what the Comelec told us will come into realization. Anyways, if you wanted to know more about the candidates who are running for the office this 2010 election, you might try to visit Political Arena. Hope you learned something from this post. Cheers!
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Tags: how to vote this 2010 election, PCOS Demo, philippines first automated election
February 24th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Is PCOS connected to central server duting voting hours? So that when I ‘feed’ my ballot to the machine, the machine tells the central server that a voter did it and tally also my vote?
-OR-
After voting hours, when a button or whatever is pushed to transmit vote, the votes tally will not only go to town/city’s canvass center but goes to Comelec central server as well?
This is a very informative post. Thanks for this!
February 24th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Nope. During the casting of votes, the machine is not connected to any server (or computer terminals). As what I mentioned above, the machine will only be connected to the main server for 5 minutes (I think it will depend on the incharge person when will he send the accumulated counts to update the main server, but Comelec stated that the number of times should be very minimal). I think it should be done after the casting of all votes per precinct.
February 25th, 2010 at 1:33 am
Kudos from one braniac to another.
February 25th, 2010 at 3:47 am
I don’t intend to be too rude with this, and I know it’s completely irrelevant but I will just say it anyway! Whhhhhaat the heck has Obama been smoking these days? There, I got it off my chest!
February 26th, 2010 at 6:23 am
Keep it up, I’m really digging these long posts, lately I have more and more time to read through your blog and I am just loving it!
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:32 am
i am happy to know that there are a lot of people who are getting involved in this 2010 Automated Elections -especially the young ones. Let us help fellow voters, let’s help in educating one another.
http://digsmydailythoughts.blogspot.com/2010/03/voters-education.html
March 7th, 2010 at 6:40 am
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March 22nd, 2010 at 10:13 am
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March 22nd, 2010 at 10:02 pm
This is one technology that I would love to be able to use for myself. It’s definitely a cut above the rest. Your insight was what I needed. Thanks
March 28th, 2010 at 7:45 am
[...] Philippines’ First Automated Election by Agnes E. Jimenez [...]