The Philippines sets a new record in election automation

On May 9, over 45 million voters elected their local and national Philippine authorities using 92,509 vote counting machines. This represents the largest deployment of vote counting machines ever. 

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic, who previously organized successful elections in 2010 and 2013, showed again the enormous benefits of election automation and what the technology deployed could mean for the Asia-Pacific region.

To guarantee transparency and the proper functioning of the system on Election Day, several audits, certifications and tests took place during the months leading up to the election. The source code used to run the automated platform was audited for 8 months by a group of experts, which included political party representatives, election watchdogs and authorities.  Additionally, a US-based company SLI Global certified that the source code worked as intended. 

During the voting hours every voter was given a vote receipt showing the selections registered by the system to allow him/her to make sure it was correctly registered. It is important to note that, as a paper-based system, the voter-marked ballot was already a robust auditing mechanism.

This extremely high level of auditability allowed political organizations to check that results matched the will of the voters at the polls, and accept the outcome of the elections.

With this new successful election, the Philippines proved that they are at the leading front of the worldwide trend towards election technology adoption.

The future of democracy is digital, and the Philippines have proved it.  

Philippines gears up for 2013 e-voting

When e-voting made its big debut in the Philippines in 2010, most Filipino voters were guardedly optimistic. Although majority was rooting for the new system, the country’s long tradition of electoral fraud seemed an impossible problem to eliminate.  Yet e-voting took everyone by surprise – leaving Filipinos in awe of its speed, accuracy and transparency.

That singularly impressive experience led most Filipinos to become ardent advocates of automation. Some sectors, especially the teachers who ran the polls in the precincts and who have benefited greatly from the introduction of e-voting, have in fact sworn to resist any move to shift back to manual.

This overwhelming national sentiment was affirmed when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) exercised its option to purchase the 82,000 PCOS machines it leased from Smartmatic in 2010.

With barely four months before the elections, the Comelec finds itself with its hands full ensuring that the polls run as smoothly as possible.  There is one major difference in the way things are being run this time, though.  Whereas the 2010 polls had only one provider (Smartmatic) handle the project from end-to-end, this year the Comelec decided to break down the project into several components and bid them out separately.

While some observers perceive some benefit in not allowing a sole provider perform everything, it remains to be seen whether the poll body is up to the Herculean task of orchestrating the various components that make up a project as  technical and as complex as a nationwide e-voting.

Recently, the Comelec conducted a mock election in multiple points all over the country. The dry run had generally been successful despite encountering a few reported glitches which were corrected as soon as contingency measures were put into place.

The exercise tested not just the technology but also the human component of the system, with procedures and protocols undergoing strict scrutiny. The poll body had vowed to use the learning in the exercise to fine-tune its procedures.

Filipino voters are hopeful this year's e-voting will be the next big step towards their dream of a totally transparent and credible election.