In my own definition, election is an act of choosing competent individuals to serve and not to rule in formal office. The May 2010 elections will be one of the critical yet historical events in the Philippines simply because this said event will bring a major change in our country for the reason that this will end not all but some of the corrupt incumbent officials’ regime in the government. It was Senator Richard Gordon who crafted the Republic Act 9369 or the amended Automated Elections System Law which begun on July 24, 2006.
I took this statement from philippinestoday.net posted on July 14, 2006:
“The cheating happens when people are tired from watching the vote, and when the count slows down. By automating the process, the counting will be instantaneous and the results transmitted immediately at the end of the voting day, straight from the precinct to the world. This is how we will stop the cheating and protect our democracy,” Gordon said.
I took another statement of Senator Gordon from the Senate of The Philippines press release in August 11, 2008:
"We have worked hard for the Automated Elections Law. We had hoped it would be tested last 2007 elections, but it didn't happen. Now, we're just a few hours away from witnessing a new system of elections. This is not just a historical event for our country, but a crucial one. Isinulong ko ang batas na ito para sa susunod na eleksyon sa 2010, patas na ang laban. Wala na ang dayaan at dahas. Wala na ang mga dagdag-bawas at cash-unduan. Elected officials can now hold their head up high because they know they are the true leaders chosen by the people. The populace will have confidence in their leaders because they were voted through a credible system of elections," Gordon said.
The technologies that will be used in the system are Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machine and Optical Mark Reader (OMR). The Optical Mark Reader is a machine that reads and documents the poll results. The Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machine records the votes by use of a ballot image and is being activated by the user. The results will then be stored in two ways: as a data in the memory and as a printed copy of the tabulation. This type of technology will be able to produce the results faster than the usual manual elections that the Philippines have and this voting machine will help you minimize time and cost in ballot printing and transporting. The very first automated election happened last August 11, 2008 on the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The election served as a test for a much bigger event – full automation of the 2010 Presidential elections.
Here is a bit of news I read about the lessons learned from the ARMM automated elections from Lesson for the ARMM polls: New problems accompany election automation written by By DAVID DIZON/abs-cbnNEWS.com | 08/07/2008 4:02 PM:
Roberto Verzola, secretary-general of election watchdog Halalang Marangal, said the use of optical mark readers (OMR) and direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines in the ARMM election does not guarantee an error-free electoral exercise.
"Everyone thinks that if we automate the elections, then all our problems will go away. However, if you look at the experience of the United States and other countries who have automated their elections, the old problems still persist and new problems crop up," he said during a forum at the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement headquarters in Quezon City.
I agree to Mr. Roberto Verzola’s statement regarding the inaccuracy of optical mark readers (OMR) and direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines. These types of machines cannot totally eradicate the election fraud. When I heard the news about automated election in the Philippines, two words came into my mind, “inside job”, in contrast to what Senator Gordon stated. That is because, I have this impression that I live in the country of political thieves and we have a lot of public officials who easily fool the people and stage-manage the situations as if nothing controversial has ever happened, not to mention President Gloria Macapagal – Arroyo and her cronies. When it comes to automated election issues, we never know, source codes are being manipulated by the people in position. There may be transparencies in the development of the code, but it does not actually mean that what they will be showing the public is the truth. In the technical side, computers are not always “bug” free and that it could always have a system malfunction and procedural miscalculation no matter how many times it underwent error checking and testing before being implemented. Simple things like these can somehow affect the results of the poll.
I cited some issues or problems that the COMELEC or let us just say, the Philippines will have to overcome before the elections or might have to undergo during this critical event. First, there are some rural or urban areas in some or most of the provinces in the Philippines are up until now, do not have access to electricity. Second, we have what we call illiteracy and third, we have the safe transportation of the machines to the voting precincts. Even though an election is automated, still, some old problems will occur. We have corruption, vote-buying, fly voting and the worst of all, violence.
Senator Richard Gordon’s statements show his pride on this automated election system which would somehow make the people confident in using the modern technology in the coming 2010 Presidential elections. I doubt that what he stated, “…patas na ang laban. Wala na ang dayaan at dahas. Wala na ang mga dagdag-bawas at cash-unduan.”, will really happen in the coming election. I, as a Filipino citizen, do not go against the automated election system. The real world problem is not actually the machine or the software to be used but it is in each and every one of us. It may somehow lessen the probability of cheating, vote buying and fly voting, but the best thing for us to do is to become vigilant and be honest to have a 100% faster, fair and honest elections!
I took this statement from philippinestoday.net posted on July 14, 2006:
“The cheating happens when people are tired from watching the vote, and when the count slows down. By automating the process, the counting will be instantaneous and the results transmitted immediately at the end of the voting day, straight from the precinct to the world. This is how we will stop the cheating and protect our democracy,” Gordon said.
I took another statement of Senator Gordon from the Senate of The Philippines press release in August 11, 2008:
"We have worked hard for the Automated Elections Law. We had hoped it would be tested last 2007 elections, but it didn't happen. Now, we're just a few hours away from witnessing a new system of elections. This is not just a historical event for our country, but a crucial one. Isinulong ko ang batas na ito para sa susunod na eleksyon sa 2010, patas na ang laban. Wala na ang dayaan at dahas. Wala na ang mga dagdag-bawas at cash-unduan. Elected officials can now hold their head up high because they know they are the true leaders chosen by the people. The populace will have confidence in their leaders because they were voted through a credible system of elections," Gordon said.
The technologies that will be used in the system are Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machine and Optical Mark Reader (OMR). The Optical Mark Reader is a machine that reads and documents the poll results. The Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machine records the votes by use of a ballot image and is being activated by the user. The results will then be stored in two ways: as a data in the memory and as a printed copy of the tabulation. This type of technology will be able to produce the results faster than the usual manual elections that the Philippines have and this voting machine will help you minimize time and cost in ballot printing and transporting. The very first automated election happened last August 11, 2008 on the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The election served as a test for a much bigger event – full automation of the 2010 Presidential elections.
Here is a bit of news I read about the lessons learned from the ARMM automated elections from Lesson for the ARMM polls: New problems accompany election automation written by By DAVID DIZON/abs-cbnNEWS.com | 08/07/2008 4:02 PM:
Roberto Verzola, secretary-general of election watchdog Halalang Marangal, said the use of optical mark readers (OMR) and direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines in the ARMM election does not guarantee an error-free electoral exercise.
"Everyone thinks that if we automate the elections, then all our problems will go away. However, if you look at the experience of the United States and other countries who have automated their elections, the old problems still persist and new problems crop up," he said during a forum at the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement headquarters in Quezon City.
I agree to Mr. Roberto Verzola’s statement regarding the inaccuracy of optical mark readers (OMR) and direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines. These types of machines cannot totally eradicate the election fraud. When I heard the news about automated election in the Philippines, two words came into my mind, “inside job”, in contrast to what Senator Gordon stated. That is because, I have this impression that I live in the country of political thieves and we have a lot of public officials who easily fool the people and stage-manage the situations as if nothing controversial has ever happened, not to mention President Gloria Macapagal – Arroyo and her cronies. When it comes to automated election issues, we never know, source codes are being manipulated by the people in position. There may be transparencies in the development of the code, but it does not actually mean that what they will be showing the public is the truth. In the technical side, computers are not always “bug” free and that it could always have a system malfunction and procedural miscalculation no matter how many times it underwent error checking and testing before being implemented. Simple things like these can somehow affect the results of the poll.
I cited some issues or problems that the COMELEC or let us just say, the Philippines will have to overcome before the elections or might have to undergo during this critical event. First, there are some rural or urban areas in some or most of the provinces in the Philippines are up until now, do not have access to electricity. Second, we have what we call illiteracy and third, we have the safe transportation of the machines to the voting precincts. Even though an election is automated, still, some old problems will occur. We have corruption, vote-buying, fly voting and the worst of all, violence.
Senator Richard Gordon’s statements show his pride on this automated election system which would somehow make the people confident in using the modern technology in the coming 2010 Presidential elections. I doubt that what he stated, “…patas na ang laban. Wala na ang dayaan at dahas. Wala na ang mga dagdag-bawas at cash-unduan.”, will really happen in the coming election. I, as a Filipino citizen, do not go against the automated election system. The real world problem is not actually the machine or the software to be used but it is in each and every one of us. It may somehow lessen the probability of cheating, vote buying and fly voting, but the best thing for us to do is to become vigilant and be honest to have a 100% faster, fair and honest elections!
References:
http://bayan-natin.blogspot.com/2009/06/whats-worry-over-a
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/07/10/09/two-former-justices-refined-automation-contract
http://services.inquirer.net/mobile/09/07/01/html_output/xmlhtml/20090630-213069-xml.html
http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2008/0811_gordon1.asp
http://bayan-natin.blogspot.com/2009/06/philippine-automated-election-update.html
http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2008/0811_gordon1.asp
http://www.philippinestoday.net/index.php?module=article&view=47
http://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2009/0311_gordon1.asp
http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2007/ra_9369_2007.html
http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=41&Itemid=301
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20080513-136300/Computer-group-assesses-planned-ARMM-automated-elections
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20080513-136300/Computer-group-assesses-planned-ARMM-automated-elections
http://www.votetrustusa.org/pdfs/CRSDREReport.pdf
http://www.ifes.org/publication/de870bce4b39339d89a3469c8de3a0a0/1%20IFES%20Challenging%20Election%20Norms%20and%20Standards%20WP%20ELVOT.pdf
http://microlab.uwyo.edu/Documentation/OMR/default.htm
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/07/04/09/tim-president-ended-cool-smartmatic-save-firm
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/special-report/08/07/08/lesson-armm-polls-new-problems-accompany-election-automation
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