SINCE 2010, the Commission on Elections has worked together with technology provider Smartmatic to administer the country’s automated elections. Through the government’s efforts and the technology of Smartmatic, the Philippines was finally able to experience the Comelec’s 18-year-old plan of a fast, secure and accurate voting process.
Over the years, however, a number of contrasting views have made automated elections a contentious issue. Its advocates point to the undeniable speed in which election results are transmitted and tallied, as well as the lack of manual interference that usually prefaces fraud. On the other hand, detractors claim that electronic systems can be manipulated, referring to it with the often-(mis)used and vague umbrella term “hacked.” Although these protests have been conclusively (and repeatedly) disproven, many critics remain adamant that “insiders can alter and affect the votes.”
Not surprisingly, a big brunt of the backlash has been directed toward Smartmatic, despite its being merely the technology provider. To a lesser degree, the Comelec has likewise received some peripheral damage to its reputation, owing to countless conspiracy theories being floated around.
While the vote-counting machines are not perfectly tamper-proof, any form of cheating presents an insoluble task that requires enormous resources, manpower and precise timing. For one, every vote is logged and stored into the sealed machine at precinct level. This means that there is foundation for verification. Yes, the final results are ultimately taken from the information transmitted to the Consolidated Canvassing System (CCS), but if any erroneous or anomalous transmissions were detected, such a comparison could easily be done with the results stored in the transmission chain, from the National Board of Canvassers, Provincial Board of Canvassers and Municipal Board of Canvassers, all the way down to the information stored at the VCMs at precinct level.
As far as “erroneous or anomalous transmissions” are concerned, a time-delayed firewall prevents the entry of any other transmissions that are not sent within a set time interval. It would be extremely difficult to synchronize any unauthorized or altered transmissions with this system because the system will only take specific transmissions from specific VCMs at specific times. The CCS would immediately report any mismatch among these.
In the case of failed transmissions, the system protocol is to have the results manually transmitted. While these may seem like a window of opportunity for cheating, the results must still be transmitted by transporting the entire VCM itself via a computer authorized by the system that is also under the care of the Municipal Board of Canvassers.
Speaking of VCMs, the Comelec has decided to buy, instead of rent them. The poll body has relied on them in the past elections and found them to be reliable. They have already been tried and tested under real-life conditions.
Purchasing the machines was more economical. Consider these: For the 2016 Presidential Polls, the Comelec reportedly spent somewhere around P8 billion to rent almost 97,000 VCMs from Smartmatic. For the upcoming 2019 midterm elections, therefore, that figure will likely remain the same, if not higher, due to inflation.
Fortunately, in the existing Comelec-Smartmatic contract—yes, this is a foregoing stipulation of a previously signed and approved contract, so conspiracy theories about “midnight deals” have no basis whatsoever—the poll body has the option to purchase the machines for P2.21 billion after a certain period of time. Compare the rental fee of P8 billion to a purchase cost of P2.21billion. Doesn’t that sound like a no-brainer in the name of prudent spending?
Furthermore, there is a clause that requires Smartmatic to fully repair and/or refurbish each VCM free of charge before the sale is completed. Accordingly, there is no risk of obsolescence or significant depreciation. The VCMs are guaranteed to be reliable for the 2019 elections, and even in 2022.
This effectively saves the Comelec over P5 billion, which it could use for other endeavors, such as voter registration and distribution of Voter IDs. God knows they need a lot of help in those areas!
Of course, there will always be some pundits and armchair analysts questioning the dependability of the VCMs. This brings to mind a recent conversation I had with an insider from the administration, who confided that, thus far, the ongoing vice-presidential vote recount has mirrored the exact results of the ones coming from the automated VCMs.
Now that the election machines have been bought by the Comelec, the next step will hopefully be putting a stop to candidates buying the election itself.
So, in less than three weeks, the Comelec will be firmly and solely in charge of the upcoming elections, owing to their full purchase of Smartmatic’s technology. Truth be told, I can’t help but worry for our official poll body, but not because I lack confidence in their ability to manage and hold elections. Indeed, those following the Commission’s history know that they have gone through far worse conditions in the preautomated days.
What worries me is the Comelec’s resiliency to fake news, fake facts, and wild claims that Smartmatic was subjected to over the years. We have to remember that Smartmatic is a global company. Even though the company is controversial in the Philippines due to accusations of manipulating results and cheating, Smartmatic has an entire portfolio of proofs that their system works in first-world countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Finland, which continue to vouch for their technology.
The Comelec, on the other hand, has a history of tampering and corruption: Ballots were blatantly switched and numbers were glossed over during the martial-law era, and more recently, there was the “Hello, Garci” scandal. Now that there is no Smartmatic to bear the heat from insidious propaganda machines, the Comelec is virtually alone to defend the integrity of the upcoming 2019 polls.
Just to reiterate, I trust that the Comelec can do its job and give us a clean and honest elections. They had a good eight years to learn everything they could from Smartmatic, and transition the tech provider out of critical processes. I just hope that their mettle can withstand the culture of hate and divisiveness pervasive in our society these days, fueled by and serving only those with selfish political agenda.
For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com