By Marie Surbano (The Daily Tribune)
Link: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100507hed5.html
A delay in the count of over 3 million votes is likely should the consortium of Smartmatic and Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) fail to deliver on time the compact flash cards for about five percent of areas considered as far flung or risky.
Link: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100507hed5.html
A delay in the count of over 3 million votes is likely should the consortium of Smartmatic and Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) fail to deliver on time the compact flash cards for about five percent of areas considered as far flung or risky.
This was admitted yesterday by Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Jose Melo who said the supplier of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines may deliver the CF cards to five percent of the total vote precincts not on election day itself but at best the next day or May 11.
“Only 5 percent ‘may’ not get the flash cards with the testing. This may be done on the day of the elections itself. Five percent of the 76,000 may not have their cards attached and tested by Saturday and Sunday. And the rest will be there on Sunday itself for the testing,” Melo told reporters at a news briefing.
Cesar Flores, Smartmatic president for Asia Pacific, said the 5 percent CF cards that would not be delivered on time concerns security issues.
Smartmatic project manager Geraldine Guevara, in a letter to the commission has asked the assistance and
support of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in distributing the new flash cards to all municipalities of Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Misamis Occidental, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Basilan, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
The consortium is also asking security escorts for the shipment of the compact flash cards to the municipalities of Toboso in Negros Occidental; Divilacan, Maconacon and Palanan in Isabela; Calayan in Cagayan; Agutaya, Cuyo, Kalayaan and Magsaysay in Palawan; and Baliguian, Sibuco, Siocon and Sirawai in Zamboanga del Norte.
But Melo stressed that the possible delay in the delivery of the CF cards which consist of only 5 percent of the total 76,000 clustered precincts has no high-hitting effect to the results of the elections.
“Probably it would not have any impact. Because at the worst this five percent will be 3.2 or 3.3 million (votes only),” Melo said.
Melo on the other hand announced that about 95 percent of the clustered precincts will be receiving the CF cards before the sheduled May 10 polls.
“Elections will go through in all levels in all precincts. All will be able to cast their votes, and their votes will be counted. There is no need for manual count,” Melo said.
He noted that for the Comelec to conduct manual count would be made only “in very, very remote areas” and when the election machines break down during election day.
“If at all, manual count will occur in very, very remote areas. In case, there may be manual count in small municipalities and small precincts. It sometimes happen there when the machines break down, that’s the only time we’ll go to manual,” the poll body chief added.
Flores reported that more than 40,000 compact flash cards already arrived from Taiwan and Hong Kong to complete the recofiguration of some 76,000 flash cards.
He added that shipping of the flash cards to different provincial hubs similarly started early yesterday since there were about 35,000 cards already configured. Flores said that the testing and sealing of the newly configured PCOS machines gave out 100-percent accurate results.
“Plans are moving along. Even better than expected. We will have automated elections on May 10. Some areas will still have to wait for the flash cards but 95 percent will have their cards by Saturday,” Flores said, adding that reconfiguration of the compact flash cards will be finished by Friday.
The Smartmatic official also said that their couriers were able to start delivering the machines from the provincial hubs to the municipalities.
Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, meantime said that Comelec National Capital Regional Director Michael Dioneda reported that the PCOS machines tested in nine clustered precincts in Makati City produced accurate results.
Early this week, several PCOS machines in Batangas, Mindoro, Pateros, Taguig, Makati City, Marikina and Quezon City malfunctioned because of the wrong configuration of the compact flash cards that were designed to send instructions on how the election machines will read and count the ballots.
Comelec ordered the recall of the CF cards for reconfiguration.
n election watchdog group, meanwhile, said the recent spate of gross errors by the PCOS machines has revealed “an easy way to shave votes from targeted candidates, by making minor changes in the PCOS configuration file”.
Halalang Marangal (Halal) secretary-general Roberto Verzola explained the current PCOS problems surfaced due to a mismatch between the PCOS configuration and the ballot layout for the local candidates.
“The ballot layout for the local candidates was changed from single-spaced to double-spaced, but the PCOS configuration was not changed to account for the new locations of the double-spaced ovals. Thus, from the perspective of the PCOS, the ovals were misaligned. Ballot printing had changed the alignment of ovals due to the modified layout, but the PCOS was still looking for the ovals based on their original alignment. The PCOS couldn’t find most of the ovals anymore, resulting in missed votes,” he said.
“Smartmatic simply needs to adjust the coordinates of the ovals for the local candidates, to conform with the modified ballot layout, to correct the misalignment. This will require changing the configuration file containing the coordinates. I agree that, properly done, this would solve this particular problem,” Verzola added.
“However, this can be exploited by cheats to do targeted cheating – mostly through vote-shaving – with the PCOS machine,” Verzola warns.
“All that needs to be done is to slightly change the coordinates of the oval associated with a targeted candidate, so that the printed oval on the ballot for that candidate becomes slightly misaligned with respect to the new coordinates on the configuration file. The larger the misalignment, the greater the possibility of missing the mark on the oval – this is called a false negative or a ‘bawas’,” he said.
“The Comelec must make sure that this kind of cheating doesn’t happen,” Verzola said.
Halal convenors include former Sen. Wigberto Tañada, retired General Francisco Gudani, former poll Commissioner Mehol Sadain, former St. Scholastica’s President Sr. Mary John Mananzan, PRRM President Isagani Serrano, TOYM awardee . Ma. Paz Luna, and IT expert Verzola.
Halal had earlier estimated the chance of success of the election automation project at 32 percent.
“Only 5 percent ‘may’ not get the flash cards with the testing. This may be done on the day of the elections itself. Five percent of the 76,000 may not have their cards attached and tested by Saturday and Sunday. And the rest will be there on Sunday itself for the testing,” Melo told reporters at a news briefing.
Cesar Flores, Smartmatic president for Asia Pacific, said the 5 percent CF cards that would not be delivered on time concerns security issues.
Smartmatic project manager Geraldine Guevara, in a letter to the commission has asked the assistance and
support of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in distributing the new flash cards to all municipalities of Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Misamis Occidental, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Basilan, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
The consortium is also asking security escorts for the shipment of the compact flash cards to the municipalities of Toboso in Negros Occidental; Divilacan, Maconacon and Palanan in Isabela; Calayan in Cagayan; Agutaya, Cuyo, Kalayaan and Magsaysay in Palawan; and Baliguian, Sibuco, Siocon and Sirawai in Zamboanga del Norte.
But Melo stressed that the possible delay in the delivery of the CF cards which consist of only 5 percent of the total 76,000 clustered precincts has no high-hitting effect to the results of the elections.
“Probably it would not have any impact. Because at the worst this five percent will be 3.2 or 3.3 million (votes only),” Melo said.
Melo on the other hand announced that about 95 percent of the clustered precincts will be receiving the CF cards before the sheduled May 10 polls.
“Elections will go through in all levels in all precincts. All will be able to cast their votes, and their votes will be counted. There is no need for manual count,” Melo said.
He noted that for the Comelec to conduct manual count would be made only “in very, very remote areas” and when the election machines break down during election day.
“If at all, manual count will occur in very, very remote areas. In case, there may be manual count in small municipalities and small precincts. It sometimes happen there when the machines break down, that’s the only time we’ll go to manual,” the poll body chief added.
Flores reported that more than 40,000 compact flash cards already arrived from Taiwan and Hong Kong to complete the recofiguration of some 76,000 flash cards.
He added that shipping of the flash cards to different provincial hubs similarly started early yesterday since there were about 35,000 cards already configured. Flores said that the testing and sealing of the newly configured PCOS machines gave out 100-percent accurate results.
“Plans are moving along. Even better than expected. We will have automated elections on May 10. Some areas will still have to wait for the flash cards but 95 percent will have their cards by Saturday,” Flores said, adding that reconfiguration of the compact flash cards will be finished by Friday.
The Smartmatic official also said that their couriers were able to start delivering the machines from the provincial hubs to the municipalities.
Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, meantime said that Comelec National Capital Regional Director Michael Dioneda reported that the PCOS machines tested in nine clustered precincts in Makati City produced accurate results.
Early this week, several PCOS machines in Batangas, Mindoro, Pateros, Taguig, Makati City, Marikina and Quezon City malfunctioned because of the wrong configuration of the compact flash cards that were designed to send instructions on how the election machines will read and count the ballots.
Comelec ordered the recall of the CF cards for reconfiguration.
n election watchdog group, meanwhile, said the recent spate of gross errors by the PCOS machines has revealed “an easy way to shave votes from targeted candidates, by making minor changes in the PCOS configuration file”.
Halalang Marangal (Halal) secretary-general Roberto Verzola explained the current PCOS problems surfaced due to a mismatch between the PCOS configuration and the ballot layout for the local candidates.
“The ballot layout for the local candidates was changed from single-spaced to double-spaced, but the PCOS configuration was not changed to account for the new locations of the double-spaced ovals. Thus, from the perspective of the PCOS, the ovals were misaligned. Ballot printing had changed the alignment of ovals due to the modified layout, but the PCOS was still looking for the ovals based on their original alignment. The PCOS couldn’t find most of the ovals anymore, resulting in missed votes,” he said.
“Smartmatic simply needs to adjust the coordinates of the ovals for the local candidates, to conform with the modified ballot layout, to correct the misalignment. This will require changing the configuration file containing the coordinates. I agree that, properly done, this would solve this particular problem,” Verzola added.
“However, this can be exploited by cheats to do targeted cheating – mostly through vote-shaving – with the PCOS machine,” Verzola warns.
“All that needs to be done is to slightly change the coordinates of the oval associated with a targeted candidate, so that the printed oval on the ballot for that candidate becomes slightly misaligned with respect to the new coordinates on the configuration file. The larger the misalignment, the greater the possibility of missing the mark on the oval – this is called a false negative or a ‘bawas’,” he said.
“The Comelec must make sure that this kind of cheating doesn’t happen,” Verzola said.
Halal convenors include former Sen. Wigberto Tañada, retired General Francisco Gudani, former poll Commissioner Mehol Sadain, former St. Scholastica’s President Sr. Mary John Mananzan, PRRM President Isagani Serrano, TOYM awardee . Ma. Paz Luna, and IT expert Verzola.
Halal had earlier estimated the chance of success of the election automation project at 32 percent.
No comments:
Post a Comment