Lab testing of automated poll process starts

Simulated voting and transmission in 5 local governments to be conducted Wednesday

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) begins today the series of "end-to-end" tests on the automated election system that will be used nationwide in the May presidential and local elections.

The 5-day laboratory tests, to be conducted initially at a secure warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna, will tackle all the election day activities--from the reading of the ballots by the counting machines, the transmission of the data, and the canvassing of votes.

Seventy-five precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines will be tested initially. There are now 25,700 machines from Smartmatic that are in Comelec custody. The rest of the total 82,200 machines will be shipped in batches from Taiwan.

Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal told reporters on Thursday that under this test, the empty machines and laptop will be loaded with the software designed for reading and canvassing votes. Sample ballots will then be fed onto the machines. Mock votes will be counted and transmitted, and results will be canvassed by the laptop.

The software to be used for the tests, however, is the uncertified version. Larrazabal said that the software will undergo 3 more tests for certification in Colorado, USA.

Larrazabal said the lab tests should help the Comelec spot any probable problems at any stage of the process. “These are some procedures to be taken to test the accuracy, security, and functionality of the system,” he said.

He added that Smartmatic conducted last weekend its own “end-to-end” testing of the machines, in which the company saw no problems with the machine functions. “That will be verified in this lab test,” he said.

Simulation

Representatives of the Technical Evaluation Committee, the Department of Science and Technology, the Commission Advisory Counsel, Smartmatic-TIM, and Comelec will participate in the test, which will be conducted entirely in the warehouse.

After the lab tests, the poll body will then proceed with the field tests on January 27.

The field tests, just like the lab tests, will also simulate the entire voting process to determine the voting, counting, and canvassing functions of the machines. The field tests will be conducted simultaneously in real polling precincts to get an idea of pobable conditions on election day.

The poll body selected 2 precincts, each to be serviced by 1 PCOS machine, in the following cities and municipalities for the testing:

• Pateros
• Taguig City
• Bakun, Benguet
• Naga City, Cebu
• Lake Sebu, South Cotabato

Larrazabal said that the General Instructions for the first nationwide automated elections “specified that there should be urban and rural areas tested.” A mix of cities and municipalities were chosen to see different election day conditions.

“[The field tests] will show that the system should work not only in the urban centers but also in rural areas all over the country,” Larrazabal said.

Larrazabal said that the lab and field tests are “internal testings” only, and a nationwide mock test will be done on February 6. Details of the mock test, however, will be revealed next week yet.

Source: ABS-CBN News

Poll chief worries over automated elections

MANILA -- With only four months to go before the anticipated automated elections, Comelec chairman Jose Melo admitted Monday that he worries over the circumstances that might occur before the May 2010 poll.

Melo, who regarded these problems as "birth pains," said that from a scale of 1 to 10, the rating of the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) level of preparedness is only 8.

He confessed that he worries on the upcoming use of the 82,200 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines this May. Out of the more than 80 thousand machines, only 7,200 arrived before 2009 ended.

In a news conference Monday, Melo said that apart from the delivery of the remaining machines, there are still some problems that bother him.

"In so far as holding automated elections is concerned, our confidence level is high...but there are these problems. It bothers us also," he said.

Read the whole story at Sunstar.com.ph.

Comelec projects 80% turnout for 2010 polls

Says more people are interested in casting their votes because of the new, automated system

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is projecting an 80% voter turnout--or 40 million votes to be cast--this year, higher than the average 75% it normally set in previous polls.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told reporters Friday that more voters will be keen on casting their votes to try the new, automated system. Another factor that will increase voters' interest are the fact that it's a presidential election, and there are a number of "interesting" candidates.

"In the run up to this election, we have to understand that [election-related matters] are always in the news.... ...So, we really expect that it (the interest generated) will translated into voting numbers on election day," Jimenez said.

Citing projections made by the National Census and Statistics Office, Jimenez said the target 50 million voters population for the 2010 elections has been exceeded.

As of September last year, the total number of registered voters was at P50,086,054, and the clustered precincts reached 75,471. The numbers are still subject to change due to the continuous cleansing of voters list, and the additional voters from the extended registration.

New registrants
Jimenez also reported that, as of now, the current number of voters generated by extended registration has already reached 258,691. Comelec is still waiting for statistics from 2 municipalities in Sulu to finalize the tally of late registrants. The extended voters ran December 21-23, and 28-29.

The current statistics of late registrants is a far cry from the 2 million registrants that Kabataan partylist expected to be listed up. The partylist lobbied last year for the extension of the voters registration, which the Supreme Court granted.

In a press conference last Wednesday, commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that the threshold on the number of expected voters had been reached during the regular registration. "A lot of people have already registerd. I guess we've reached our target."

But Kabataabn partylist earlier said that even though the Comelec deemed that there was a low turnout in the extended registration, having more than 250,000 registrants for just 5 days is already a success.


Source: http://abs-cbnnews.com/nation/01/08/10/comelec-projects-80-turnout-2010-polls