What Went Before: The Philippines’ first automated polls
On May 10, 2010, Filipinos voted in fully automated elections for the first time.
After voters filled out machine-readable ballots, precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines leased from Smartmatic Corp. for P7.2 billion were used to record, count and transmit the votes to canvassing centers where the votes were automatically added up.
“It was faster than you can say Garci,” then Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Melo said, alluding to disgraced former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who was accused of colluding with former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to rig the 2004 presidential election, a charge both deny.
But the country’s first automated elections were hounded by glitches such as errors in the compact flash cards containing the list of voters and candidates; the breakdown of some machines that resulted in delays in transmitting results to canvassing centers; and the failure of built-in ultraviolet mark readers in the PCOS machines to read the security marks on the ballots.
Even in the face of complaints, the Comelec decided to automate the 2013 midterm elections.
Option to purchase
On March 15, 2012, the Comelec decided to buy Smartmatic’s automated voting machines for next year’s elections despite opposition from various election watchdogs and reform advocates.
Voting 5-2, the Comelec decided to exercise its “option to purchase” at least 80,000 PCOS machines, saying that Smartmatic, its technology provider for the 2010 elections, had already corrected glitches in the system.
The “option to purchase” was contained in the July 2009 contract the Comelec signed with Smartmatic.
Several individuals and groups including one led by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., asked the Supreme Court on April 10 to stop the Comelec from buying the machines. The deal was worth P1.8 billion.
On April 24, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the Comelec’s contract to buy the PCOS machines.
The court consolidated three petitions that challenged the legality of the Comelec’s buying the machines. Ana Roa, Inquirer Research
Sources: Inquirer Archives
