SPECIAL REPORT-AUTOMATED ELECTION-Seventh of a Series- May 10, 2010
SPECIAL REPORT-AUTOMATED ELECTION
Seventh of a Series- May 10, 2010
By Ike Seneres
It’s already election today, and all we have from the COMELEC is a verbal assurance that they are 98% ready, contrary to all the data that the media is reporting. According to ABS-CBN News, less that 30% of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines have been delivered to the precinct level as of May 7. According to same report, only about 40% of the ballots have been delivered from the National Printing Office (NPO) to offices of the local Treasurers as of May 4. I am hoping that these figures might have improved as of today, but it is hard to imagine how the COMELEC has come up with the 98% readiness report as early as two days ago.
As it is now, it seems that the COMELEC might have spoken too soon about their readiness claims. From the point that the PCOS machines will arrive at the local distribution centers, it will take a few days before these are actually delivered to the precinct level. This is also the same story in the case of the ballots, because it will still take a few days before these are transferred from the offices of the local Treasurers to the precinct level.
So far, the COMELEC has been quiet about their plans to do the testing of the transmission, canvassing and consolidation stages, but it seems that they are already too busy as it is in the testing and sealing of the PCOS machines, so there is a very high possibility that they are just going to do away with the testing of these three very important stages.
According to the new rules of the election process, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) is required to physically remove the compact flash (CF) cards from the PCOS machines, and deliver these cards manually to the canvassing centers, in the event that they could not transmit electronically after three attempts. This appears to be an unwise procedure, because it gives the subjective decision to the BEI to remove the CF cards or not.
IT expert Jun Lozada (the whistleblower) says that in the design of the PCOS machines, all the data derived in the optical counting are stored in the CF cards only, and nowhere else. What this means is that the PCOS machines do not even have a backup copy of the data just in case something happens to the CF cards in transit. If it was too easy for politicians to snatch the big ballot boxes, how hard is it for them to snatch the small CF cards?
The COMELEC could argue otherwise, but the procedure allowing the manual transfer of the CF cards is ripe for a set-up, or even an ambush, to be brutal about it. I respect the people who are helping our democracy by working as BEI members, but what if their impartiality is compromised by hidden loyalties or threats to their lives? They could easily claim that transmission has failed, so that the CF cards could fall prey to the wrong people, compromising the election process as well.
IT expert Leo Querubin has raised another issue that has either escaped the attention of the COMELEC. Either that or they have purposely kept quiet about it, because apparently they have no more time to put it in place. I am referring to the need for the digital signatures of the BEI members. Under the new election rules, the BEI members are required to authenticate all documents, including electronic documents. Without digital signatures, how will they be able to do this?
In the event of pre-proclamation protests, only the composition of the BEI and their conduct of the procedures are grounds for protest. According to Mr. Querubin, an enterprising lawyer could cite the lack of digital signatures as a procedural lapse. He says that without digital signatures, all documents issued by the BEI could not be considered official. He added that even if the BEI will print hard copies of the Election Returns (ER), these too could not be considered as official, because the electronic source is not official.
Whether they like it or not, it is highly probable that the COMELEC will be forced to conduct a hybrid count, combining both manual and optical methods. Regardless of whether they will use manual, optical or a combination of both, they would still need the digital signatures of the BEI members, otherwise no documents could be considered legal and official.
Among all the possible ways of cheating that has been theorized so far, it seems that the “time stamp” theory of IT expert Mon Ignacio is the most plausible. He says that malicious programmers could have written two sets of programs for the PCOS, one “righteous” and the other malicious, and the latter could be activated by the built in internal time clocks of the PCOS machines, unseen by human eyes. The other theory of pre-printing invisible marks that are not visible to human eyes is plausible too, so watch out!
Check out the complete series at www.senseneres.blogspot.com
Seventh of a Series- May 10, 2010
By Ike Seneres
It’s already election today, and all we have from the COMELEC is a verbal assurance that they are 98% ready, contrary to all the data that the media is reporting. According to ABS-CBN News, less that 30% of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines have been delivered to the precinct level as of May 7. According to same report, only about 40% of the ballots have been delivered from the National Printing Office (NPO) to offices of the local Treasurers as of May 4. I am hoping that these figures might have improved as of today, but it is hard to imagine how the COMELEC has come up with the 98% readiness report as early as two days ago.
As it is now, it seems that the COMELEC might have spoken too soon about their readiness claims. From the point that the PCOS machines will arrive at the local distribution centers, it will take a few days before these are actually delivered to the precinct level. This is also the same story in the case of the ballots, because it will still take a few days before these are transferred from the offices of the local Treasurers to the precinct level.
So far, the COMELEC has been quiet about their plans to do the testing of the transmission, canvassing and consolidation stages, but it seems that they are already too busy as it is in the testing and sealing of the PCOS machines, so there is a very high possibility that they are just going to do away with the testing of these three very important stages.
According to the new rules of the election process, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) is required to physically remove the compact flash (CF) cards from the PCOS machines, and deliver these cards manually to the canvassing centers, in the event that they could not transmit electronically after three attempts. This appears to be an unwise procedure, because it gives the subjective decision to the BEI to remove the CF cards or not.
IT expert Jun Lozada (the whistleblower) says that in the design of the PCOS machines, all the data derived in the optical counting are stored in the CF cards only, and nowhere else. What this means is that the PCOS machines do not even have a backup copy of the data just in case something happens to the CF cards in transit. If it was too easy for politicians to snatch the big ballot boxes, how hard is it for them to snatch the small CF cards?
The COMELEC could argue otherwise, but the procedure allowing the manual transfer of the CF cards is ripe for a set-up, or even an ambush, to be brutal about it. I respect the people who are helping our democracy by working as BEI members, but what if their impartiality is compromised by hidden loyalties or threats to their lives? They could easily claim that transmission has failed, so that the CF cards could fall prey to the wrong people, compromising the election process as well.
IT expert Leo Querubin has raised another issue that has either escaped the attention of the COMELEC. Either that or they have purposely kept quiet about it, because apparently they have no more time to put it in place. I am referring to the need for the digital signatures of the BEI members. Under the new election rules, the BEI members are required to authenticate all documents, including electronic documents. Without digital signatures, how will they be able to do this?
In the event of pre-proclamation protests, only the composition of the BEI and their conduct of the procedures are grounds for protest. According to Mr. Querubin, an enterprising lawyer could cite the lack of digital signatures as a procedural lapse. He says that without digital signatures, all documents issued by the BEI could not be considered official. He added that even if the BEI will print hard copies of the Election Returns (ER), these too could not be considered as official, because the electronic source is not official.
Whether they like it or not, it is highly probable that the COMELEC will be forced to conduct a hybrid count, combining both manual and optical methods. Regardless of whether they will use manual, optical or a combination of both, they would still need the digital signatures of the BEI members, otherwise no documents could be considered legal and official.
Among all the possible ways of cheating that has been theorized so far, it seems that the “time stamp” theory of IT expert Mon Ignacio is the most plausible. He says that malicious programmers could have written two sets of programs for the PCOS, one “righteous” and the other malicious, and the latter could be activated by the built in internal time clocks of the PCOS machines, unseen by human eyes. The other theory of pre-printing invisible marks that are not visible to human eyes is plausible too, so watch out!
Check out the complete series at www.senseneres.blogspot.com
posted by Ike Señeres at 7:25 AM
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