SPECIAL REPORT-AUTOMATED ELECTION-Third of a Series- May 6, 2010
SPECIAL REPORT-AUTOMATED ELECTION
Third of a Series- May 6, 2010
By Ike Seneres
Three days after the failed testing and sealing of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, the COMELEC is still in a denial stage, and refuses to accept the reality that there is really no more time left to deploy 100% of the machines nationwide, with fully configured compact flash (CF) cards. As a token admission perhaps, they said that there will be some remote places where the machines could no longer be delivered on time, failing to note that there are many such places in an archipelagic country like ours.
Going against all rules of statistical probability, the COMELEC said that they will be able to reconfigure some 30,000 CF cards in three days time, after setting the actual track record that it took them almost three months to configure the same number of cards. As if moving on cue, the COMELEC used the problem of the cards as an excuse to delay the deployment of the PCOS machines. This led many to suspect that they were really looking for an excuse to cause some delays.
Defying all rules of time and motion, the COMELEC decided to recall some 30,000 CF cards for reconfiguration (reprogramming) they said, again failing to realize that the process of recall could take at least one week, not to mention that more time is needed to reprogram these and ship them out again. Meanwhile, they said that they are still buying some 50,000 new CF cards from China, and that means they also need more time to configure and ship out this bigger number of cards.
In an apparent conflict of statements, the COMELEC also said that they have many such CF cards on stock and the public should not worry about shortages. One wonders why they have so many reserve stocks now, when in fact they did not disclose this information before. Also in an apparent conflict of statements, the COMELEC said that in case of shortages, they will just reprogram (re-write) the defective cards. Earlier, they said that they decided to recall these cards so that these will be completely replaced. Earlier as well, they said that these cards are “read only”, meaning to say that these are not re-writable. Which is which now?
In the midst of this controversy over the delivery of the CF cards, the COMELEC might have forgotten that until now, they have not delivered the Voter’s ID card to the greater majority of registered voters. They also have not come up with a fully revalidated voter’s list. It is hard to imagine how they could fast track this far more complex process of configuring CF cards, when they could not even produce the paper based Voter’s ID card.
In an interview with Mr. Anthony Taberna of ABS-CBN, I called on the COMELEC to snap out of their denial stage as soon as possible, perhaps until today, so that they could already make a decision to print the official paper forms that are needed to support manual counting just in case we have to use that option as a fallback. It is no joke to print and deliver millions of Certificates of Canvass (COC) and Election Returns (ER) forms that is why they have to decide today if possible.
In an interview over DZMM, COMELEC Director James Jimenez said that as a fallback, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) could fabricate COC and ER forms using plain Manila paper. This irked radio host Ted Failon, who said that even in the official forms, there are already many problems with faked reports, how much more for fabricated forms. Director Jimenez appeared to be unaware that COCs and ERs are official forms that are accountable.
IT expert Mr. Leo Querubin appears to be on his feet as he reminded everyone that amidst all the controversy over the accuracy of the CF cards, the COMELEC still has not tested their transmission, canvassing and consolidation systems. Mr. Querubin is absolutely correct, because we should not allow the COMELEC to present problems to us on a retail basis, this being a major project that needs broad wholesale solutions.
Earlier, Mr. Querubin has also warned that the COMELEC has also been silent about the fact that they have already installed transmission devices in the PCOS machines, in clear violation of the Automation Law. He explained that this is a very dangerous proposition, because this will enable SMARTMATIC to manipulate the results from a remote location, as they have already done in Wao, Lanao when they were the contractors of the automated voting during the ARMM elections. Just as the nation was shocked by the failure of automation in the case of the CF cards, we might again be shocked when there is will be a failure of transmission from many precinct locations, simply because no proper tests and pre-tests were done.
Copyright © 2010, publication by newspapers is authorized.
Third of a Series- May 6, 2010
By Ike Seneres
Three days after the failed testing and sealing of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, the COMELEC is still in a denial stage, and refuses to accept the reality that there is really no more time left to deploy 100% of the machines nationwide, with fully configured compact flash (CF) cards. As a token admission perhaps, they said that there will be some remote places where the machines could no longer be delivered on time, failing to note that there are many such places in an archipelagic country like ours.
Going against all rules of statistical probability, the COMELEC said that they will be able to reconfigure some 30,000 CF cards in three days time, after setting the actual track record that it took them almost three months to configure the same number of cards. As if moving on cue, the COMELEC used the problem of the cards as an excuse to delay the deployment of the PCOS machines. This led many to suspect that they were really looking for an excuse to cause some delays.
Defying all rules of time and motion, the COMELEC decided to recall some 30,000 CF cards for reconfiguration (reprogramming) they said, again failing to realize that the process of recall could take at least one week, not to mention that more time is needed to reprogram these and ship them out again. Meanwhile, they said that they are still buying some 50,000 new CF cards from China, and that means they also need more time to configure and ship out this bigger number of cards.
In an apparent conflict of statements, the COMELEC also said that they have many such CF cards on stock and the public should not worry about shortages. One wonders why they have so many reserve stocks now, when in fact they did not disclose this information before. Also in an apparent conflict of statements, the COMELEC said that in case of shortages, they will just reprogram (re-write) the defective cards. Earlier, they said that they decided to recall these cards so that these will be completely replaced. Earlier as well, they said that these cards are “read only”, meaning to say that these are not re-writable. Which is which now?
In the midst of this controversy over the delivery of the CF cards, the COMELEC might have forgotten that until now, they have not delivered the Voter’s ID card to the greater majority of registered voters. They also have not come up with a fully revalidated voter’s list. It is hard to imagine how they could fast track this far more complex process of configuring CF cards, when they could not even produce the paper based Voter’s ID card.
In an interview with Mr. Anthony Taberna of ABS-CBN, I called on the COMELEC to snap out of their denial stage as soon as possible, perhaps until today, so that they could already make a decision to print the official paper forms that are needed to support manual counting just in case we have to use that option as a fallback. It is no joke to print and deliver millions of Certificates of Canvass (COC) and Election Returns (ER) forms that is why they have to decide today if possible.
In an interview over DZMM, COMELEC Director James Jimenez said that as a fallback, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) could fabricate COC and ER forms using plain Manila paper. This irked radio host Ted Failon, who said that even in the official forms, there are already many problems with faked reports, how much more for fabricated forms. Director Jimenez appeared to be unaware that COCs and ERs are official forms that are accountable.
IT expert Mr. Leo Querubin appears to be on his feet as he reminded everyone that amidst all the controversy over the accuracy of the CF cards, the COMELEC still has not tested their transmission, canvassing and consolidation systems. Mr. Querubin is absolutely correct, because we should not allow the COMELEC to present problems to us on a retail basis, this being a major project that needs broad wholesale solutions.
Earlier, Mr. Querubin has also warned that the COMELEC has also been silent about the fact that they have already installed transmission devices in the PCOS machines, in clear violation of the Automation Law. He explained that this is a very dangerous proposition, because this will enable SMARTMATIC to manipulate the results from a remote location, as they have already done in Wao, Lanao when they were the contractors of the automated voting during the ARMM elections. Just as the nation was shocked by the failure of automation in the case of the CF cards, we might again be shocked when there is will be a failure of transmission from many precinct locations, simply because no proper tests and pre-tests were done.
Copyright © 2010, publication by newspapers is authorized.
posted by Ike Señeres at 11:58 AM
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