In the Know: Compact flash card

Compact flash (CF) card refers to a small, removable memory card—commonly used in digital cameras, slot machines, computers and other electronic gadgets—that saves details of a particular precinct, including the tally of votes.

CF cards were used by precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines during the May 13 elections. The records of the machines’ activities, the number of voters per precinct and the images of the ballots that the machines had read are saved in the card.

One of the preliminaries in the voting process was for the board of election inspectors (BEI) to show to the public that the printer of the PCOS machine and the slots labeled “poll worker” and “administrator” containing the main memory (CF) card and backup memory (CF) card are sealed.

After the counting of votes, the transmission of results and the announcement of the results in the precinct, the BEI shall remove the main memory (CF) card from the “poll worker” slot of the PCOS machine and place it inside an envelope.

The envelope is then sealed and labeled “transmitted” or “not transmitted.” It should also indicate the clustered precinct number, barangay, town and province before submission to the reception and custody group of the city/municipal board of canvassers. The envelope containing the main memory (CF) card, among other pertinent election documents, is then delivered to the election officer.

The backup memory (CF) card shall not be taken from the PCOS and the “administrator” slot shall remain locked.

A week before the May 2010 presidential election, the Commission on Elections had to replace the CF cards after some of them caused several PCOS machines to malfunction during a nationwide test.

For the ballots, which are precinct-specific, to be read and recorded correctly, the programs inside the CF card and inside the PCOS machine must work together.—Almi Ilagan-Atienza, Inquirer Research

Sources: https://www.compactflash.org; Comelec; Inquirer archives