No-el and No-proc?

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

No-el and No-proc?
Sunday, 05 29, 2010

Elections were actually held on May 10, 2010, but a grave and inexcusable error on the part of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) may put to waste that exercise - as if no elections were held at all and, therefore, we may have to go back to the polling precincts and vote all over again.

A voter verification feature in the counting machine would have shown the voter if his choices were correctly registered, but the Comelec disabled this feature. That feature, required under the law, was designed to warn voters of errors made by the machines on election day. Simply put, the voter should have been given proof that his vote was properly counted, that is, the machine read his ballot exactly the way the voter made his choices when he marked the “bilog na hugis itlog.” But the Comelec, instead of implementing this mandatory requirement, disregarded it; rather, “repealed it, usurping the power of Congress,” as my friend Leina de Legazpi correctly pointed out.

If we are to follow the precedent set in Germany last March 3, 2009 regarding electronic voting, then we could see the 51 million voters trooping back to the polls after the nullification of the results of the May 10 elections. Let’s ask former Senator Kit Tatad why this could be the result of the Comelec’s grave and inexcusable error.

At the Kapihan sa Sulo yesterday, Tatad came out with his paper entitled “A Proposal to Nullify the May 10 Elections.” Tatad noted that “in 2009 in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled electronic voting was unconstitutional. The court held that the voting machine does not make it possible for the voter or the voting board to reliably examine, when the vote is cast, whether it has been recorded in an unadulterated manner, or whether when transmitted it has been accurately transmitted in its unadulterated form. Democratic elections, the court pointed out, are democratic only when they retain their public character. That is to say, when the public, beginning with the voter, can see and authenticate every essential step of the election without need of special expertise.”

The Comelec disregarded the provision regarding the observance of an audited paper verification system, which was originally in place when the public tested the machines. Tatad added: “By disabling the voter’s verification mechanism, the Comelec made the voter completely blind to what the machine did to his ballot after he had put it in. Thus, no voter who voted last May 10, from the President of the Philippines to the lowliest individual could state for a fact that she or he knew that the machine had read her or his vote right. This totally voids the voting.”

IT expert Roberto Verzola describes it accurately, thus: “Under the old system, candidates and voters could see how their votes were counted one vote at a time. This is living democracy, when citizens are active witnesses and participants in the counting of votes that will select their leaders. We lost this democratic process under automated lections, which give us no idea if the machines counted our votes correctly. Excluding candidates and voters from the counting of the votes is actually a big step backward in electoral democracy.”

The German Federal Constitutional Court decided last year that electronic voting is unconstitutional. The Court ruled that the use of the electronic machines contradicts the public nature of elections

The use of electronic voting in Germany was challenged on the ground that “the system was not transparent because the voter could not check what actually happened to his vote, being actually asked to blindly trust the technology.” It was established that the voting machines do not print out receipts similar to those what Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM should have provided every voter in the May 10 elections. It was claimed in Germany, as it is now in the Philippines, that the results could be manipulated because of the absence of any verification feature.

In the article “No E-Voting in Germany” on March 11, 2009 of the European Digital Rights (EDRi) - an international non-profit association committed to defend civil rights in the information society - it was reported that the Court “ruled that the Federal Voting Machines Ordinance having introduced e-voting was unconstitutional because it did not "ensure that only such voting machines are permitted and used which meet the constitutional requirements of the principle of the public nature of elections."

It was pointed out by EDRi that “the court considered that, differently from the traditional voting system where manipulations and frauds are much more difficult involving a high degree of effort and a high risk of detection, "programming errors in the software or deliberate electoral fraud committed by manipulating the software of electronic voting machines can be recognised only with difficulty." Also, in the court's opinion, the electors should be able to verify how their vote is recorded without having to possess detailed computer knowledge. "If the election result is determined through computer-controlled processing of the votes stored in an electronic memory, it is not sufficient if merely the result of the calculation process carried out in the voting machine can be taken note of by means of a summarising printout or an electronic display."

Now, Tatad said he would ask the Supreme Court to nullify the May 10 elections. Fully convinced the elections were rigged on account, among others, of the absolute inability of the voter to know how his vote was counted and whether or not his vote, even if correctly counted, was transmitted accurately, Tatad said he will seek the nullification of the results because the process was unconstitutional in this regard.

That should put those trooping to Times Street to think twice about depositing their polished CVs. Not yet, not now, Ding, Dong, Ping, Pong. And to the infotech-challenged Koala bears, happy and lucrative days could be here again.

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Why is the random audit taking too long?

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Why is the random audit taking too long?
Sunday, 05 16, 2010

It is very alarming.

The random manual audit is taking too long, and the results in those precincts where the audit is already finished are not being made public immediately. Worse, we are told that it will take about a month for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to come out with the results of the audit.

A precinct audit should only take at most half a day, after which its results should be immediately transmitted to the audit committee and simultaneously made public. Any delay will fuel fears about discrepancies being covered up, and will make the audit process less credible.

The random manual audit is the only remaining chance we have to determine the error rate of the PCOS machines that counted the votes on May 10, 2010. Without knowing the error rate, we will never know how trustworthy the machine counts and, by extension, the final outcome of the elections.

At the Kapihan sa Sulo yesterday, Roberto Verzola of the electoral watchdog Halalang Marangal pointed out that with the acceptability of the results of the random manual audit put into serious doubt with the unexplainable delay, the credibility of the outcome of the elections is likely to be questioned.

The random manual audit is the last remaining chance to determine the error rate of the PCOS machines, after the Comelec had taken away the four other possible modes, thus: (1) The results of the Comelec acceptance tests, which should have included tests for machine error rates, remain confidential; (2) The Systest Labs test results, which should also include machine error rates, also remain confidential; (3) A final testing should have established that the machines make zero error when counting the votes in ten ballots. Instead, the machines showed errors so glaring that the Comelec cancelled the tests; and (4) On election day, a voter verification feature in the machine should have shown the voter if his choices were correctly registered, but the Comelec disabled this feature.

Verzola said: “We have no idea at this time of the actual error rates of these machines, because Smartmatic and the Comelec have kept their test data as well as any error rate findings by Systest Lab confidential. Three days before election day, the election inspectors were supposed to do a ten-ballot test, but it was cancelled by the Comelec due to an alleged memory configuration, and in the general confusion and mad rush to reconfigure the machines in time for May 10, we have no idea whether every machine went through the test and passed it with zero errors. Also, the Comelec disabled the machine’s voter verification feature, which would have warned voters of errors made by the machines on election day. Finally, the results of the random manual audit are either delayed or are not being made public.”

We do not know yet the actual error rates of the PCOS machines. If the error rates are too high, the PCOS machine results will be useless in resolving very close contests, like in the race for the vice-presidency.

The May 10 elections were held using PCOS machines whose error rates have not been made public. Today, six days after the elections, we still have no idea of the error rates of these machines.

Yet, the Comelec has been prematurely proclaiming winners based on the results issued by these unaudited machines, without waiting for the audit findings. We are only a few days past the May 10 elections and the terms of office of outgoing officials end on June 30, 2010 yet. Why the rush?

Instead of enhancing its credibility, the audit committee has been undermining it.

By announcing the precincts to be audited at noon time of election day, forewarning cheats who could then immediately order their field operators to stay away from those precincts. Also, it is taking a long time to finish the audit, devaluing the audit for each day of delay, because cheats get an increasing chance to influence the audit results. And by not immediately making public the results from the finished precinct audits, the Comelec is only engendering the worst fear of the electorate that a cover up is being put in place.

The Comelec should make public the audit results as soon as they become available, and to finish the audit as soon as possible. Comelec should not rush the proclamation of machine winners until after the audit and the issues arising from the discrepancies it finds have been fully resolved.

Similarly, the Senate and the House of Representatives, convened as a national canvassing board for the presidential and vice-presidential elections, should seriously consider the import of the results of the manual audit - not simply note them – and go beyond the certificates of canvass submitted.

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Given the gross errors showed by the PCOS machines in field testing days before election day, and the expanding list of errors discovered on and after election day, expect losing candidates to question the results and demand a recount. And we cannot blame them. For the Comelec to insist on proclaiming based on the results generated by the machines whose credibility has been shattered does not make sense.

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Comments to djraval2001@yahoo.com.

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Plans are moving along

ENQUIRY
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Plans are moving along
Sunday, 05 09, 2010

In the closing chapter of Terminal Four, a novel by vice-presidential candidate Jun Yasay, there is a scene that eerily comes close to reality vis-à-vis the alarm and foreboding that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is causing today. The book, written yet in July 2009 and published January this year, is described by former Manila Times publisher Alfred dela Rosa as “an intriguing roman à clef about corruption, power grab, love and sex in high places that resonate with recent media headlines and congressional probes.”

The entire book really does deserve a thorough reading, but what concerns us at the moment is the scene in Malacañang where Rick Santos, a hotshot lawyer who is a friend of the first gentleman and secret lover of the president, briefs the couple on the Comelec:

“They assure us that the implementation of a new nationwide computerized voting system will be completed on time; that the glitches expected of an untested system will be manageable. The technology revolves around an automated optical scanning system. Some critics claim that it doesn’t provide the transparency required for the counting of votes. These guys say the national electoral results can still be manipulated if expert manpower cannot adequately be provided for the operation of the new machines.”

The President then asks Rick if such manpower exists, and he replies: “To save face, Comelec will insist that it has the full complement of IT experts to oversee the elections and minimize hitches. They will announce that any manipulation of results is virtually impossible with the new system. Even if the opposition thinks otherwise, their objection is focused on a particular type of hardware and software, but not on the concept of an automated process. They know that reverting to the antiquated manual process would be a nightmare that would mainly favor the administration candidates. But since this is an entirely new system” - Rick paused and smiled like the Cheshire cat - “unexpected glitches are bound to happen.”

“You’re not suggesting that this new automated system is bound to fail, are you?” asked the president.

“It will fail . . . but you, Madam President, will have nothing to do with it. That is Comelec’s sole responsibility. The errors and malfunctions will be such that none of the candidates for president, vice-president and senators can claim any clear victory. With all due respect - and I must be very candid under the circumstances that we’re having this conversation - I foresee that the administration candidate for president will be the weakest contender, because…” Rick paused, as he was met with blank faces.

“The real contest,” Rick continued, “will likely be among the stronger opposition candidates. But our anticipated computerization fiasco will force a declaration of a failure of election in the national elective posts. And it will be impossible to hold special elections for these positions before June 30. The melee that will ensue will seriously threaten the peace and stability of the nation. In that event the President - Rick looked at the president in the eye - “will be compelled to use her emergency powers, including resort to martial rule, to curtail violence and chaos.”

I hope for our sakes that Yasay was just engaging in speculative fiction, but the nightmare he has described is unfolding too close to reality. In such a case, we have to be afraid, be very, very afraid.

With just a day left before the national elections, the Comelec seems unperturbed that the precinct count optical scan machines (PCOS or PEKEs, as they are now being called) have not worked during dry runs conducted in Quezon City, Batangas, Mindoro, Pateros, and everywhere. The Comelec is not even flustered that some 76,000 reconfigured compact flash cards needed to set aright the operation of the PEKEs have yet to be shipped and installed throughout the country.

“Plans are moving along, even better than expected,” says the Comelec. This said with an air of smugness, without batting an eye, and a trace of guilt. Where I come from, “better than expected” means 121-percent accomplishment, with lots of time to spare for resolving glitches, screw-ups and plain stupidities that have not been factored in in the timetable for project execution.

Anak ng PCOS! It’s been the same song, the same assurance, that the public has heard, that I’m sure if these Comelec guys sang this self-congratulatory excuse to the tune of “My Way,” they’d have been shot many times over by irate voters

The Comelec has had enough time since it inked a contract with Smartmatic and TIM, and up to now neither Comelec nor Smartmatic-TIM have divulged for public knowledge the nature and security features of the hardware to be used in the elections; the source code of the software, for review by interested parties; the terms and protocols of a random manual audit, and certification from the technical evaluation committee that the automated system is fully functional and a continuity plan is in place.

Instead, what we have is the song-and-dance that “plans are moving along, better than expected.” Is the mismatch between the PCOS configuration and the ballot configuration, resulting in unread votes, better than expected? If you ask me, that’s computerized dagdag-bawas, a digital Garci! Or is Murphy’s Law (“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”) the operative procedure and convenient scapegoat here?

Hey, Comelec, what gives? Are you not bothered by the frightful prospect of a failure of elections where an enraged nation holds you accountable?

But wait…maybe, just maybe, what had been happening - the machine glitches, the waiving of security marks and signatures in the ballots, the soft treatment Smartmatic had been given - are parts of a more sinister plan that is moving along to attain its demonic completion tomorrow.

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