Senate Bill No. 2231: Partially automated elections in 2007 Manuel A. Alcuaz Jr. Inquirer
November 12, 2006
SENATE BILL NO. 2231 is an interesting creation of the good intentions of two senators with night and day views on election automation.
Sen. Dick Gordon is the champion of fully automated election. His vision is to have one million Direct Entry Systems (PC's with touchscreens) on which voters in over 200,000 precincts would enter their votes by simply touching the name of each candidate they would vote for. The Automated Election System would automatically generate the precinct totals (election returns) this would be electronically transmitted to district or municipal counting centers for canvassing, and then again electronically transmitted to provincial canvassing centers and eventually to Congress and Comelec for national canvassing.
Senator Gordon like many people thinks that automation will shorten the election process and eliminate election manipulation and cheating.
Sen. Serge Osmeña like many senior IT professionals thinks that even automated systems can be hacked and manipulated.
There is no time to select a vendor, develop a system for nationwide automation, and deploy one million Automated Election Systems by May 2007.
So the bill only proposes test automation in six highly urbanized cities and six provinces distributed equally between Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The bill in its Oct. 10, 2006 revision stated the following minimum capabilities:
A. Utilize or generate official ballots. B. Identify the voter and verify his identity, so that he shall be allowed to vote only once and in only one precinct. C. Prevent any person from using identity of a deceased voter. D. Allow voter to accurately identify and indicate his/her choices with access provisions for differently enabled. E. Record the voters choices and store in a manner that may not be altered. F. Provide a system of verification to confirm that the machine has registered his choice. G. Count votes, print vote counts, and store the results in a manner that may not be altered in anyway. H. Transmit the results in a secure and error free manner. I. Recover the votes in case of machine failure. J. Configure access control. K. Provide system administration facilities. L. Provide system audit and backtrack. M. Provide system utilities for data security. N. Provide for safekeeping, storing and archiving of physical or paper resources. O. Provide voter verified paper trail and an audit system. P. Provide security against unauthorized access.
The above minimal requirements are good and technology neutral (one of the key objectives in amending RA 8436).
The bill introduces election automation safeguards that exceed that of most states in the US.
One missing provision is a mandatory manual count audit, using the printed ballots, for one out of each 20 precincts or at least one precinct in a small canvassing center (1,000+ precincts nationwide).
The law provides for an advisory council to: 1) Recommend the most appropriate, secure, applicable and cost effective system. 2) Participate as non-voting member of bidding and awards committee. 3) And in the implementation steering committee 4) Provide advice and assistance in planning, problem identification, assessment, and resolution, risk management 5) Prepare and submit a written report to the oversight committee.
There is also a technical adhoc evaluation committee that shall certify through an international certification entity that the AES including its hardware and software components is operating properly, securely and accurately in accordance with the provisions of the act.
The following tests are mandated: 1) Field testing with mock election event 2) Third party audit of AES software 3) Source code review
Interestingly the bill does not allow Comelec to designate as counting centers any building or facility located within the premises of a camp, reservation, compound, headquarters, detachment, or field office of the military, police, prison or detention bureau, or any law enforcement or investigation agency.
The bill provides for the printing and distribution of 35 printed copies of the election returns to government agencies, political parties, citizens organizations, and media.
The bill provides for the electronic transmission of the precinct results to respective levels of board of canvassers. Electronically signed ERs and COCs or those in the storage device shall be used for official canvassing.
The transmission electronically or otherwise is a possible source of manipulation since there is no parallel transmission that is not controlled by Comelec.
The bill also provides for an education campaign to familiarize voters and other stakeholders with the use and operation of the AES.
Since the 2007 elections will only be partially automated the bill also provides procedures and safeguards for the counting and canvassing of votes in areas that will use manual voting with paper ballots.
This is where Senator Osmeña's inputs to minimize fraud become evident.
The first innovation he introduced involves taking a digital photo of the election returns and the certificates of canvass and subsequent printing and transmission of these to national and local parties, national and local media, to citizens groups, and to the board of canvassers.
The law authorizes recipients of ERs and COCs to do unofficial consolidation and announce the results to the public.
The bill also provides for Comelec to put its digital files on the website and to keep them there for at least three years.
Another innovation of the bill is the requirement that the canvassing of votes should be done for national positions first. According to Senator Osmeña in the past, canvassing boards would do the local canvass first. When most of the watchers and public had gone home the canvassing for national positions would be done. It is at this time that substitution of ERs or COCs could take place.
A final innovation is that in conducting the canvass of ERs or COCs the board of canvassers at the municipal, city, district, or province shall project each ER or COC on a wall for those present to be able to follow the canvassing process.
These innovations introduced in SB 2231 will make "dagdag bawas" and other forms of fraud much more difficult in future elections.
Let us hope the bicameral committee adopts the many good provisions of SB 2231.
(The article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines. The author is president of Systems Sciences Consult Inc. Feedback at mapsec@globenet.com.ph)
Previous columns: Honest procurement: Learning from gov't mistakes – 11/06/06 The new frontier: Tax Risk Management – 10/30/06 Identity crisis in our universities – 10/23/06 Country above self – 10/16/06 Raising standards: The key to competitiveness – 10/09/06 Can the Philippines be globally competitive? – 10/02/06 CEO challenge to sustainable CSR – 9/25/06
