Find a Way to Rig the Automated Elections, and You Win P100M!

Posted on April 19th, 2009. Written by Rico.

Tomorrow, Senatar Alan Peter Cayetano will file a resolution creating a P100 million reward to anyone who can prove that the planned poll system for the 2010 elections is open to tampering. As inquirer.net reports:

Cayetano, at a press conference Friday, said that if any IT expert can establish that the system to be used in the 2010 polls is not secure from fraud and tampering, “Comelec should cancel the contract, save the P11 billion and sue for damages the contractor in the event of such successful hacking.”

He said he would rather revert to the manual counting of votes if the computerized system would lead to wholesale cheating.

At first glance, it makes sense to offer such a massive incentive to anyone who can poke holes into the COMELEC’s planned election automation system. The system will enjoy a challenge from people initially unfamiliar with the system; anything that the system creators may have overlooked may be obvious to these challengers. A relatively small percentage of the P11 billion election automation budget can ensure security for the 2010 elections, or help us avoid potential massive election failure.

Yet I also know that no system—even our current, manual-based election process—is absolutely secure. With a reward this big, you can bet that people will be trying their absolute best to compromise the system. Cayetano’s resolution may do more harm than good, especially since his press conference establishes that the senator is simply looking for a reason to cancel election automation, instead of revealing technical and human errors in the system for correction.

In other words, once someone claims the reward—and the chance for that happening is high—the public and political pressure to cancel automating the 2010 elections will be strong. At the very least, enough to push back the progress of election automation in the Philippines and its accompanying benefits.