SPECIAL REPORT-AUTOMATED ELECTION-Sixth of a Series- May 9, 2010
SPECIAL REPORT-AUTOMATED ELECTION
Sixth of a Series- May 9, 2010
By Ike Seneres
It’s one day to go before election day, and the COMELEC says that 98% of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines have been deployed, so it’s all systems go, as far as they are concerned. I think what they mean by that is that they have dispatched 98% of the machines, but that does not mean that all the machines have been delivered, tested and sealed at the precinct level, in all locations all over the country.
What is clear at this point however is that the COMELEC has not made provisions for the testing of the transmission, canvassing and consolidation stages, and neither have they made provisions for the dry run of these machines, including all stages all at the same time. What is also clear is that they have not verified the capability of the electrical connections in the precincts to be able to carry the load of several hours of operation with a higher wattage requirement than the usual incandescent lamp usage in these precincts.
For some reasons known only to them, the COMELEC did not bother anymore to report about the success or failure of the second round of testing and sealing that was supposed to happen after the compact flash (CF) cards were re-delivered to the precincts after these were supposed to be reconfigured. This has the effect of a media blackout, but it seems that they have to explain this later, after the election.
For the record, we now have the distinction of being the only country in the world that will attempt to roll out an election system nationally, without the benefit of alpha testing, beta testing, pilot testing and dry runs. Contrary to the claims of the COMELEC, the election in the ARMM that was partly conducted by SMARTMATIC could not be considered as a pilot, simply because the technology that they used there was for Direct Recording Equipment (DRE), and not for Optical Mark Recognition (OMR).
The behavior of the COMELEC in choosing SMARTMATIC as the supplier after the supposed pilot could be likened to someone who bought a car after test driving a truck. The analogy continues, as they proceeded to use the car even without breaking it in first, so you can just imagine the malfunctions that could possibly happen as all the rules have been broken.
Perhaps accepting the reasoning of the COMELEC hook line and sinker, the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions to shift to manual counting, citing the reason that the CF cards are “read only”. I respect the legal prowess of the court justices, but perhaps they have been remiss in determining the fact that the CF cards are designed to be re-writable, meaning that these are not “read only” as they have been made to believe. The proof of this is the fact that SMARTMATIC was able to reconfigure these cards, meaning that they were able to erase the old data in these cards and replace it with new instructions.
After all the rush that was created by the initial failure of the CF cards, no one, not even the political parties were able to inspect these after they were reconfigured by SMARTMATIC. Aside from that, no one was able to answer the issue of the “chain of custody” that was raised by IT expert Leo Querubin. As a result of these two factors, the possibility now looms that malicious codes might have been inserted in the CF cards as these were reconfigured. Either that or some of these cards might have been replaced with new cards that have malicious codes, while they were in transit.
Based on the nature of the OMR technology, it is possible for the PCOS to receive instructions via the optical marks that are printed on the paper ballots. In other words, it is technically possible to print (or pre-print) some invisible marks in the paper ballots that will instruct the PCOS to count in any other way that it is instructed, including instructions to ignore whatever marks are manually written on the ballots.
It is important for anyone who is concerned about the sanctity of the ballot to understand the meaning of DATA PROTOCOL. What this means is that a computer like the PCOS could be instructed by the operating system, or the application software, or any other input device such as the invisible marks to give priority to certain data sets, over and above any other data sets. For example, the PCOS could be instructed to give priority in counting the votes for certain candidates as these are pre-printed or pre-marked in invisible optical marks, in effect ignoring any manual marks as written by the voters.
The most likely scenario that will happen is that the COMELEC will declare successful automation no matter what happens, and they will just proceed to proclaim any candidate that has substantially won, as they see it.
Check out the complete series at www.senseneres.blogspot.com
Sixth of a Series- May 9, 2010
By Ike Seneres
It’s one day to go before election day, and the COMELEC says that 98% of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines have been deployed, so it’s all systems go, as far as they are concerned. I think what they mean by that is that they have dispatched 98% of the machines, but that does not mean that all the machines have been delivered, tested and sealed at the precinct level, in all locations all over the country.
What is clear at this point however is that the COMELEC has not made provisions for the testing of the transmission, canvassing and consolidation stages, and neither have they made provisions for the dry run of these machines, including all stages all at the same time. What is also clear is that they have not verified the capability of the electrical connections in the precincts to be able to carry the load of several hours of operation with a higher wattage requirement than the usual incandescent lamp usage in these precincts.
For some reasons known only to them, the COMELEC did not bother anymore to report about the success or failure of the second round of testing and sealing that was supposed to happen after the compact flash (CF) cards were re-delivered to the precincts after these were supposed to be reconfigured. This has the effect of a media blackout, but it seems that they have to explain this later, after the election.
For the record, we now have the distinction of being the only country in the world that will attempt to roll out an election system nationally, without the benefit of alpha testing, beta testing, pilot testing and dry runs. Contrary to the claims of the COMELEC, the election in the ARMM that was partly conducted by SMARTMATIC could not be considered as a pilot, simply because the technology that they used there was for Direct Recording Equipment (DRE), and not for Optical Mark Recognition (OMR).
The behavior of the COMELEC in choosing SMARTMATIC as the supplier after the supposed pilot could be likened to someone who bought a car after test driving a truck. The analogy continues, as they proceeded to use the car even without breaking it in first, so you can just imagine the malfunctions that could possibly happen as all the rules have been broken.
Perhaps accepting the reasoning of the COMELEC hook line and sinker, the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions to shift to manual counting, citing the reason that the CF cards are “read only”. I respect the legal prowess of the court justices, but perhaps they have been remiss in determining the fact that the CF cards are designed to be re-writable, meaning that these are not “read only” as they have been made to believe. The proof of this is the fact that SMARTMATIC was able to reconfigure these cards, meaning that they were able to erase the old data in these cards and replace it with new instructions.
After all the rush that was created by the initial failure of the CF cards, no one, not even the political parties were able to inspect these after they were reconfigured by SMARTMATIC. Aside from that, no one was able to answer the issue of the “chain of custody” that was raised by IT expert Leo Querubin. As a result of these two factors, the possibility now looms that malicious codes might have been inserted in the CF cards as these were reconfigured. Either that or some of these cards might have been replaced with new cards that have malicious codes, while they were in transit.
Based on the nature of the OMR technology, it is possible for the PCOS to receive instructions via the optical marks that are printed on the paper ballots. In other words, it is technically possible to print (or pre-print) some invisible marks in the paper ballots that will instruct the PCOS to count in any other way that it is instructed, including instructions to ignore whatever marks are manually written on the ballots.
It is important for anyone who is concerned about the sanctity of the ballot to understand the meaning of DATA PROTOCOL. What this means is that a computer like the PCOS could be instructed by the operating system, or the application software, or any other input device such as the invisible marks to give priority to certain data sets, over and above any other data sets. For example, the PCOS could be instructed to give priority in counting the votes for certain candidates as these are pre-printed or pre-marked in invisible optical marks, in effect ignoring any manual marks as written by the voters.
The most likely scenario that will happen is that the COMELEC will declare successful automation no matter what happens, and they will just proceed to proclaim any candidate that has substantially won, as they see it.
Check out the complete series at www.senseneres.blogspot.com
posted by Ike Señeres at 6:30 AM
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