PCOS Supervisor Clarifies Automated Election Process

Posted on March 25th, 2010. Written by Rico.

As a reaction to my proposal to the COMELEC for the 2010 elections, reader Bryan M outlined how the votes would move from the regional to national levels. Here’s what he had to say.

hello po i clarify ko lang po ung process sa election day, bali pumasa po kasi akong PCOS Supervisor para sa mga PCOS Machines this coming may 10 elections (under smartmatic)

bali pagka scan po ng votes e store muna sa machines ang data. then 6pm po tsaka palang po kami mag ta transmit sa regional, then pag na complete na sa regional tsaka palang po ibabato sa national wait 2 secs to reload the image so mga madaling araw po pag successful ang transmission pwede na i anounce ang ating mga new local and national elects any questions po about the pcos machines ask lang po thanks

If “Bryan M” is really an election machine supervisor helping out with the 2010 automated elections, it’s good to see that at least one of them is reaching out to the voters online. Based on the email address he used to post his reaction, you may contact him on Facebook here.

I totally understand the need to compile the votes before sending them up to the region, and do the same with the regional voting data before transferring it to the national data for a final tally. But can’t Smartmatic (the contractor handling the automation of the 2010 elections) share the regional data once its put together, as it’s moved to the national level? Again, I’d like to see COMELEC and Smartmatic share the votes as quickly as possible, as a security measure. By presenting election data promptly, with as many people as possible, it becomes virtually impossible to rig the final tally through an inside job.

I’ve asked him for further clarification about the automated election system. Specifically, how will Smartmatic share the election returns information with accredited watchdog organizations like NAMFREL, and if it’s possible for the election automation contractor to share the votes with people in general. Stay tuned for updates, dear readers!