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DAVAO
CITY—In the test of automated elections at the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in 1996, the
quality of paper and its exposure to the elements was
blamed in the failure of the machines to count all the
election returns.
In 1998,
when automation was applied only in the ARMM, counting
bogged down in Sulu.
This
week election officials, machine technicians and
operators, and observers, frowned on the erratic, even
failed, online transmissions of election returns, in
Maguindanao, where the paperless direct recording
electronic (DRE) technology was tested.
At the
Shariff Aguak capitol, the results in only four of the
29 precincts were transmitted electronically to the
municipal canvassing center in this city, four hours
after the casting of ballots was closed at 3 p.m.
Monday.
The
Commission on Elections (Comelec)-trained technicians
who manned eight computers had to rely on flash drives
that accompanied the election returns to canvass the
results.
The
flash drives that contained election returns were
required to be inserted in the envelopes containing the
election returns.
Technicians from Smartmatic-Sahi Joint Venture blamed
the inability of the precincts to transmit to failure of
satellite transmission.
They
assured though that the flash drives were as secure as
the DRE machines, saying both equipment were formatted
with a 24-bit encryption system that is difficult to
break.
The DRE
system is not entirely paperless, though. It churns out
a paper, similar in size to the thermal paper-receipts
issued by department stores and shopping malls. But,
just like the function of the receipt, the DRE paper
serves as validation of what the voter inputted, which
must be dropped in a box to serve as the paper
documentation of what were inputted in the DRE. This box
would be the one to be opened for investigation if an
election protest were filed.
The DRE
was supposed to showcase the speed of online technology,
transmitting the election returns with the least human
intervention, from one level to another up to the
national canvassing center.
James
Jimenez, Comelec spokesman, said the transmission
process was estimated to cut down the waiting time for
the proclamation of the winning candidates to 36 hours.
The
estimate is based on the assumption that it would take
24 hours from the first arrival of election returns or
transmitted data, to the arrival of the data and
election returns from the farthest, and difficult to
reach, municipalities to transport the election returns
to the nearest counting center.
The DRE
system was supposed to be faster because all results are
transmitted electronically. The system using the optical
mark reader (OMR)—using paper ballots with spaces to
shade requires physical transport of election returns to
the election centers equipped with counting machines.
As of
7:30 a.m. Tuesday, Shariff Kabunsuan’s ballot boxes have
arrived at Cotabato City’s Polytechnic College
gymnasium.
Michael
Abbas, Comelec chief in Shariff Kabunsuan, said the
ballot boxes came from 1,305 precincts.
He said
this was already a huge improvement though saying that
at that time, “we are still in the early stage of
counting and transport of the ballot boxes was still
going on.”
The
canvassing center had machines that can count 85 to 100
OMR ballots per minute.
With the
process going smoothly then, Abbas and the members of
the Provincial Board of Canvassers were preparing to
proclaim the winning candidates before noon Tuesday, or
barely a day after the casting of ballots.
But with
transmission woes coming from elsewhere, the
proclamation was postponed to Wednesday. |
