Voting machine demo held to win youth’s trust

NEW EXPERIENCE. With a nun leading the way, first-time voters on Saturday are given a preview of the automated system that awaits them in the May 2016 elections. RAFFY LERMA

Young, first-time voters in Manila on Saturday were introduced to the vote counting machines (VCMs) that will be used in the May 2016 polls, in a demonstration aimed at building public confidence in the devices.

Around 100 youth voters gathered inside Cardinal Sin Auditorium at Paco Catholic School to cast mock ballots on the VCMs, with officials of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and VCM supplier Smartmatic-TIM looking on.

“We want the youth to have a feel of the VCM that will be used in the actual voting. We want to introduce the machine to them so they can scrutinize it,” said PPCRV chair Henrietta de Villa. “Unlike the adults or elderly people, the youth are interested in technology. That’s why we decided to organize a demonstration.”

The PPCRV will soon conduct demos in other parishes and communities nationwide as part of its advocacy for voters’ education and transparency, De Villa said. “We want the people to have confidence in using the machines.”

Smartmatic-TIM project manager Marlon Garcia stressed that the VCMs had the necessary safeguards against hacking, such as multilevel user authorization, authentication access control features, digital signatures and encrypted files.

“Like the previous machines, the new VCMs use high encryption levels, which make hacking impossible. [A] 256-bit keys encryption is utilized, doubling the security over their predecessors,” Garcia said.

As also shown in the demo, the machines require a unique username and password for each member of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI), which will also identify all their audit log entries. The VCMs also have physical security devices (called iButtons) and digital certificates for each BEI member to initiate operations, control its functions and digitally sign the electoral results.

Lawyer Karen Jimeno, the Smartmatic head for voters’ education, said the VCMs complement the ballot’s security features. “All ballots will contain a bar code containing specific information such as city or municipality, district and clustered precinct associated. The VCMs will only accept ballots related to its precinct information,” she said.

The ballots will be printed in special security paper containing ultraviolet (UV) color-shifting ink and a pattern that cannot be reproduced by a photocopier or scanner.

The VCMs are designed with ultraviolet sensors capable of detecting the presence or absence of UV patterns, which ensure that only authentic ballots will be recognized, Jimeno said in a statement.

Garcia also pointed out the source code, the software program which runs the VCMs, as a key safeguard. The Commission on Elections and Smartmatic have made the source code available for public review since Oct. 8 or seven months before the elections.