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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