November 19, 2009, 3:47pm
The upcoming 2010 computerized elections -- if it pushes through at all considering the various issues and legal suits now being thrown at the Comelec -- will serve as a “reboot” for the Philippines in the way that it elects its leaders.The poll body, through its spokesman James Jimenez, said it is only natural for people to fear something that they haven’t done before, which, in this case, is voting via automated means.
While the actual act of voting could still be classified as manual since voters would still have to “shade” the circle that corresponds to the name of a candidate on a paper ballot, the counting will be done fully electronically, according to the Comelec.
Jimenez said the results would, in fact, be transmitted wirelessly from the precinct to Comelec’s server, back-up servers, majority and minority political parties, a citizen watchdog, and to its own website.
The Comelec official said it would be virtually impossible for a hacker to infiltrate the system and compromise the poll results as he or she would have to attack all the servers and the websites all at once.
Furthermore, Jimenez said the PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines are stand-alone devices that would only be connected to the Internet at a very short and specific time. This is the only window in which hackers can launch an unlikely attack, Jimenez said.
As for the source code of the PCOS technology which various groups have demanded to be made public, Jimenez said the poll agency has contracted a third-party validation entity which will soon release its assessment.
He said the Comelec cannot unilaterally release the source code of the technology because it was developed by a private company as its own intellectual property.
Jimenez said the Comelec would also set up technical support teams in voting centers come election time.
There are about 1,000 voters in every precinct, he said.
The poll agency, said Jimenez, is tapping as many channels as possible, particularly the Internet, in educating the electorate on the advantages of an automated elections.
The Comelec exec said two sites -- www.ibanangayon.ph and www.bagongbotante.ph -- have been put up by Smartmatic, the poll contractor, to help initiate a voter education campaign.
“The online campaign will enhance the offline efforts that we would also be conducting,” said Jimenez, who also maintains various blogs that relate to the forthcoming automated polls.
Source: http://mb.com.ph/articles/230199/2010-automated-polls-a-reboot-filipinos
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