Tag: automated elections
Time for our thank-you-prayers (and to party!) 
The worst did not happen: there was no “wholesale electronic cheating”, no massive disenfranchisement; the doomsdaysayers-who- did-not- suggest- any –countermeasures and the fearless forecasters who gave last election’s same forecast, should consider a career-shift; Smartmatic on the other hand should still be held accountable for the last-minute snafu and the near-cardiac arrest it subjected the Filipino nation, the Comelec should still consider proceeding against the ten per cent purchase price of the contract as penalty against Smartmatic, i’m sure there’s some contractual stipulation there against last-minute breaches of procedure and putting the beneficiary of the contract on the brink of disaster (Comelec can use the money to further study how to improve the automated system, or better yet: give the money to the teachers and PPCRV: Teachers!-Bonus! PPCRV-Research-grants!)…and my broadband speed and whatchmacall are back: small — miniscule– sacrifices.
Perhaps, the analog “dagdag-bawas” cheating criminal syndicate did not have enough time to figure out the new encryption of the re-configured compact flashdrives; perhaps, the eleventh-hour snafu threw the cheating gangs into confusion and frustration as well – just when they thought they had figured out the algorithms, the software of each drive was re-configured (replaced!); throwing everybody — including Malacañang, top election lawyers, the Garci special ops, and also Comelec into confusion.
And while Smartmatic’s Asia-Pacific company president Cesar Flores in his Venezuelan accent, double-rr’s double-ee’s, could resort to clichés in their defense “Eet waas eh blessing in deesguise” (it was a blessing in disguise), “Hah ken you arrgue ehgenst sekcces” (How can you argue against success) “Ohls well that ends well” (All’s well that ends well) “Derr was method in ahrr medness” (There was method in our madness), — and while he is safe from reconsidering his day job and auditioning for a lead role in an ABS-CBN-produced new Mexican telenovela — we should still proceed against Smartmatic’s ten per cent (that’s still 10% of 7.2 billion), this is no way to run an election – on a cardiac finish! (Pay up, guys.)
For future elections, the analog dagdag-bawas cheating syndicates have three years, they have time – they will wisen up.
So should we.
And for that, serious study should be given to restoring or activating the security features such as a monitor or display of the vote cast (even the most antiquated ATM gives you a display or receipt for your minimum one hundred pesos), or a paper receipt/record of the vote cast, to be returned and put inside the ballot box upon exit of the voter, ultraviolet security markings, voter verification system, etc.
Because we might have used up our quota on good luck, blessings, serendipity, graces, and good karma.
This is my precinct. i was at the schoolhouse at 7:30 am, at 8:07 am, i was the 89th voter, based on the PCOS count. About 20 minutes was spent in a queue to get the precinct number from two laptops of PPCRV volunteers (it was impossible to access the Comelec precinct finder so i went ahead to the schoolhouse). About 25 minutes was spent lining up at my precinct, but it was very congested, hot, and there was some confusion on which queue to follow.
Voting time (or the time spent from the moment the voter steps at the schoolhouse, to the time he/she gets out of the classroom) 
could have been cut in half if the “masterlist” of voters (the list of all voters for the district) are posted in strategic places of the schoolhouse, instead of making the voters queue to ask to get the info from the PPRCV laptops. How difficult is it to photocopy several folders of the voters’ list and post them in several bulletin boards? These are public documents. I’ll pay for the xeroxing; anyone could have done that – anyone with common sense.
The long queue outside the classroom could be solved if voters took a shorter time “deciding” – i saw the voters actually mulling a long time over whom to vote , oh for crying out loud, you had 90 days to think about: close your folder if you don’t know whom else to vote and proceed to the PCOS machine. This is not a midterm exam. (it’s just too hot, sowee; okay, take your time — take all day.)
The PCOS machine took only two seconds to count (register) my vote. The teachers and Comelec personnel inside the classroom were efficient.
If only someone thought of reproducing the voters’ list.
