Automated Elections in the Philippines... Automated Suffrage! by Sedric Ames Chua

In next year’s elections, automated elections would be introduced for the first time in the Philippines. But before we expound on the automated elections let us first examine the history of voting.
Brief history of suffrage
It is a wide misconception that the United States of America is where voting started but actually voting goes way back, in fact the US hadn’t introduced voting until the late seventeenth century in the time where the US declared independence from England. In the time where monarchies rule the world, they were the first democracy in the world. In US democracy, Thomas Jefferson with his work on anti-federalism is the pioneer of choosing leaders by majority rule.
The voting process has a rich history; it goes way back to the times of ancient Greeks. Each year, the Greeks had a negative election -- voters were asked to cast a vote for the politician they most wanted to exile for ten years. Votes were written on broken pots, ostraka in Greek and from this name came our present word to ostracize. If any politician received more than six thousand votes then the one with the largest number was exiled. If no politician received six thousand votes then all remained. If there was a fairly even spread of votes, nobody would get over six thousand and no one would get exiled -- hence only very unpopular politicians were ostracized and exiled.
In 13th century Venice, Venetians voted for a Grand Council of 40 members. They introduced "approval voting": electors cast one vote for every candidate they find acceptable and none for those whom they deem unacceptable. The winner is the person who is acceptable to the largest number of voters. Ramon Llull is the one who proposed this type of voting system where it is based precisely on the principle of fairness.
In the early fourteen hundreds, the German philosopher and bishop, Nicholas of Cusa studied Llull's idea and realized that it had deficiencies. With this, he proposed a different system which would always result in a winner. Cusa produced a document on how to elect German kings in which he proposed the following system. If there were x candidates for King, then voters should give the least favored candidate of their choice one point, the next candidate two points and so on until they reached their most favored candidate for King who they would give x votes. This system is used today for some elections but it does have the deficiency that the candidate elected may not have been anyone's first choice.
Philippine Voting and Elections
In 1987 after former President Ferdinand Marcos had stepped down from power, the 1987 constitution was established. The 1987 constitution establishes a new system of elections. The terms of representatives are reduced from four years to three, and the presidential term is lengthened from four years to six. Senators also serve a six-year term. The Constitution's transitory provisions are scheduled to expire in 1992, after which there is to be a three-year election cycle. Suffrage is universal at age eighteen. The constitution established a Commission on Elections that is empowered to supervise every aspect of campaigns and elections. It is composed of a chairperson and six commissioners, who cannot have been candidates for any position in the immediately preceding elections. A majority of the commissioners must be lawyers, and all must be college-educated. They are appointed by the president with the consent of the Commission on Appointments and serve a single seven-year term. The Commission on Elections enforces and administers all election laws and regulations and has original jurisdiction over all legal disputes arising from disputed results. To counter the unwholesome influence occasionally exercised by soldiers and other armed groups, the commission may depute law enforcement agencies, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines. In dire situations, the commission can take entire municipalities and provinces under its control, or order new elections.
Philippine Elections VS US Elections
Courtesy of photius.com, this is the skeleton of voting and elections in the Philippines. As you can clearly see, it is somewhat similar to the US. Well, maybe the constitution really is patterned after the US, after all the Philippines and the US does have a certain “link.”
But unlike US elections where fairness is really emphasize, the Philippines have lots of anomalies when it comes to elections (well, practically the entire Philippine politics as a whole). From vote-buying to “misplaced ballots”, you name it, there isn’t an anomaly that the Philippines hasn’t or didn’t have during elections. Remember the elections six years ago? President Arroyo allegedly cheated her way to becoming president, through the “Hello Garci” scandal, and all Arroyo said was that she’s sorry. If this would have happened to an American politician, he/she would have already stepped down.
Every election year, less people vote from the last one. It is believed that there are more people who vote at the Pinoy Big Brother than in the Philippine elections. There are lots of factors why this is happening. Most people don’t give a damn about the elections. These people are usually the poor ones and are more concern about survival (e.g. food, shelter, clothing etc.) Also, some people believe that they aren’t making a difference because they will just be putting another politician that is almost like the last one, one that will just in it for the money.
But probably the most important explanation, in my opinion, is the reason of altering ballots. Many people believe that no matter whom you vote those votes won’t be counted as such because they believe that the only “numbers” that are worth counting for the Comelec are the one’s paid by who even is the desperate one. President Arroyo can attest to that, remember the Hello Garci scandal in the 2004 elections? Oh yeah, lets not overlook the “missing ballot” anomaly that to Senator Zubiri overtaking Pimentel in the senatorial race in the ’07 elections. No wonder a lot of people don’t want to vote.
It is time for a change!
Automated elections in the Philippines… finally
It is about time that automation in elections have arrived in the Philippines, next year will be a belated welcoming of automation, since the machines were bought about 6 or 7 years ago for the purpose of automating the 2007 elections, but because of “bidding problems” we have to wait for an automated election until 2010.
But that is a thing of the past, what is important now is that we will finally get a fair election (hopefully). I believe that the main reason for the delay is that the people looking at cheat in the elections can’t find a way to hack into the system, in desperation of keeping power, they suspend the automated election. And now that the public is clamoring for chance, they have no choice but to reinstate the automated elections.
Automated Systems
It all started with the implementation of the Republic Act No. 9369, also known as “An Act Authorizing The Commission on Elections To Use An Automated Election System In The May 11, 1998 National or Local Elections And In Subsequent National And Local Electoral Exercises.” This authorized the Comelec to undertake the automation of the elections in 2010, the first in the political history of the Philippines.
From 1907 to 2007, elections in the Philippines have always been manual. Not only is it manual, but the election process has been tedious, at least in today’s standards. Voters have to write by hand their votes, and counting of them is done by the board of elections by reading the votes out loud and recording it all down on a tally sheet or election return, and on a blackboard or tally board. Canvassing then takes place in the municipal or city board of canvassers, provincial board of canvassers and national board of canvassers, respectively.
It is because of this type of election that has dishonest election practices like misreading, misappreciation and substitution of ballots at the precinct level on the rise. After each election, the Comelec and courts are swamped with complaints of election fraud.
RA 9369 states that an automated election system is “the use of an appropriate technology which has been demonstrated in voting, counting and the consolidation, canvass and transmission of election results.”
The automated systems were pilot-tested in the 2008 in six provinces, though there were pluses and minuses in the conduct of the automated elections in the six provinces, the automation was viewed positively. The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting reported that the automated systems cut short the time for voting, counting and canvassing, eliminated election protests and minimized election-related violence.
Voting and counting flow using Pcos
On the day of the elections that will start at 7 a.m., a registered voter, after proper identification and issuance of a ballot by the BEI, will shade the ovals or circles opposite the names of his/her chosen candidates. The voter then places the ballot into the Pcos. The Pcos scans photographs and records the ballot that will thereafter be dropped into a transparent ballot box. If the ballot is spurious, it will be rejected by the Pcos.
At the close of voting hours, the Pcos is given the command to start counting the recorded votes. The Pcos prints out eight election returns that reflect the names of candidates and the number of votes garnered by each candidate. The contents of the election return are publicly read, signed and thumbprinted by the BEIs and the watchers. One copy of the election return is posted on the wall, while the results are read out loud. Other copies are distributed as provided for by law. Upon disposition of the eight copies, the BEI digitally signs and encrypts the soft copy of the election return in the Pcos, which then electronically sends the election results to the corresponding city/municipal board of canvassers and to the dominant majority party, dominant minority party, accredited citizens’ arm, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas and the Comelec central backup server. After the electronic results have been transmitted and known nationally and even internationally, additional copies not to exceed 30 may be printed and given to requesting parties at their own expense.
These procedures came from a website, it is quite hard to understand but fear not, the Comelec, through the General Instructions it will issue, shall explain the manner and procedure of voting, taking into consideration, among other things, the secrecy of the voting.
The canvassing procedure of the electronically transmitted results by provincial, city, district and municipal board of canvassers, national board of canvassers for senators and party-list representatives and by Congress for president and vice president are provided in RA 9369.
The speed and transparency in transmission eliminate the opportunity to change election results and thwart election cheats to resort to dagdag-bawas or vote-padding and vote-shaving schemes. It is the Comelec’s estimate that in 48 hours, the public will know the winners for the national positions.
Confidence building measures
But there are still a lot of skeptic questions about these automated systems, like: Will it not engender massive automated cheating? Can it be hacked? Can results be preprogrammed? Can the vote results be altered doing electronic transmission? Can the system be programmed to favor a specific candidate or group of candidates?
To address these fears and concerns, the RA 9369, which was crafted by private-sector IT experts and computer experts from nongovernmental electoral-reform groups, has provided some reassurance: (came from businessmirror.com.ph)
1. Source Code review by any interested political party or groups. The source code is the human readable instruction that defines what the computer equipment will do (Section 11, RA 9369).
2. Field Testing of Pcos machines followed by a mock-election event in one or more cities/municipalities (Section 11, RA 9369).
3. Examination and testing of the Pcos by political parties and candidates or their representatives, citizens’ arm or their representatives (Section 14, RA 9369).
4. Preparation of continuity plan containing contingency measures in case of systems breakdown, and copies of this plan shall be furnished all political parties and party-lists (Section 13, RA 9369).
5. Random Manual Audit in one precinct per congressional district randomly chosen by the Comelec in each province and city. Any difference between the automated and manual count will result in the determination of what cause and initiate a manual count for the precincts affected by the computer or procedural error (Section 29, RA 9369).
6. Accredited political parties and deputized citizens’ arms of the Comelec shall assign watchers in the printing, storage and distribution of official ballots. Ballots shall have necessary safeguards like bar codes, holograms, color-shifting ink and micro printing (Section 15, RA 9369).
7. Widespread stakeholders’ education and training program through newspapers of general circulation, radio, television and other media forms, as well as through seminars, symposiums, forums and other nontraditional means to educate the public and fully inform the electorate about the automated election system and inculcate values on honest, peaceful, orderly and informed elections (Section 31, RA 9369).
8. Every registered political party or coalition of political parties and every candidate shall be entitled to one watcher in any polling place and canvassing center (Section 26, RA 9369).
9. The Technical Evaluation Committee composed of a representative from the Comelec, the CICT and DOST, will certify not later than three months before the date of the electoral exercise, categorically stating that the Pcos, including its hardware and software components, is operating properly, securely and accurately (Section 11, RA 9369).
10. The Advisory Council will continue to provide advice and assistance in the identification, assessment and resolution of systems problems or inadequacies that may surface or resurface in the course of testing, operationalization, storage or disposition of the Pcos. It will also provide help in the risk management of the Pcos when a contingency or disaster situation arises (Section 9, RA 9369).
Automated Election as Best Tool and Technique
What it means to be a Best Tool/technique is that it enables citizens to effectively participate or contribute to good governance at local or national levels.
I believe that more people will vote participate in voting in the upcoming elections because more people trust the automation of elections. Yeah, it may still have some conflicts like vote-buying and election-related violence but not everything is perfect. With automated elections, it is now safe to say that regardless who will be running this coming election, the one that deserves to win would most likely win, and yes, you can make a difference by voting.
Sources:
http://bayan-natin.blogspot.com/2009/06/whats-worry-over-automated-elections.html
http://www.activoteamerica.com/Home2/History_of_Voting/history_of_voting.html
http://www.gap-system.org/~history/HistTopics/Voting.html
http://www.photius.com/countries/philippines/government/philippines_government_voting_and_elections.html
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/perspective/14399-a-moment-in-history-understanding-poll-automation-for-the-2010-national-and-local-elections.html