MANILA, Philippines?Senatorial candidate Adel Tamano Wednesday demonstrated possible ways to cheat in the 2010 elections despite automation, saying tampered ballots could still fool the computers.

The Nacionalista Party candidate said the ballots could be pre-shaded with pencil before distribution to voters, noting that there would be several change of hands from the printers to the voting precinct.

?The question is not so much about technology. The issue here is the sanctity of the ballot. The ballots will pass through a number of hands before it reaches the machine,? he said at a media forum.

Tamano showed reporters how this could be accomplished using a machine, which he said adopted the same technology that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would employ in May.

?What if someone shaded the boxes then erased them? It would not be visible but the machine could still read the [remaining lead] from the pencil,? Tamano said.

Permanent markers

Told that the Comelec would use permanent markers, he said the machine would still be able to read penciled-in answers.

He demonstrated possible ways to cheat using an answer key and several sets of a test paper used by a review center.

In his demonstration, the ?correct? answer to five questions was letter A. Using different answer sheets, the machine read the following results:

An answer sheet with five perfectly shaded A?s yielded a perfect score of five.

An answer sheet with double entries, or two answers, yielded zero out of five.

Double entries, including the correct answer A, yielded zero out of five.

An answer sheet with clearly erased perfect A?s yielded three out of five.

An answer sheet with correct answers with less visible erasures yielded five out of five.

A ballpoint pen was also used but the machine did not accept it.

A pentel pen was also used, and the machine read it perfectly.

Easy if you know how

Tamano said the problem with this system was that the machine could still read the lightly erased answers.

It is possible to cheat, he said, if someone tries to shade in the ballots lightly with pencil before they reach the voters.

If the voter shades the box for another candidate, that vote will be invalid because the machine will also read the lightly shaded box. Or if the voter leaves out that box, then the vote for the cheating candidate will be counted by the machine.

Tamano said only the most informed voters would take the time to check all the boxes for possible tampering.

?In fact, it is easier to cheat, if you know how to cheat. I?m sure evil minds have already thought about this,? he said.