Comelec opens new 5-hectare warehouse to the public

Smartmatic machines are stored at the Comelec warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. INQUIRER/NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has opened its new five-hectare warehouse located in Sta. Rosa city, Laguna province to the public for the first time on Thursday.

The warehouse, which currently stores 71,346 vote counting machines (VCMs), is owned by JAM Liner Inc. and is being leased by the commission for about P69 million per year.

The Comelec, led by Chairman Andres “Andy” Bautista, took its beat reporters for a walkthrough in the said facility which includes Building 1 where the production area is located.

Marlon Garcia of Smartmatic explained that all VCMs shipped from its plant in Taiwan will be stored in the warehouse and will undergo a hardware acceptance test (HAT).

“We run the diagnostics of the machine to make sure the machines run accurately. We also run the ballots to make sure the machines scan the ballots and to ensure the interpretation of the results are accurate,” Garcia said.

He said that that aside from subjecting the VCMs from the HAT, the machines will also undergo the accuracy test.

The accuracy test entails the scanning of the machines of 1,000 ballots

“The accuracy test is basically a scan of 1,000 ballots with a total of 20,000 marks. What we do there is to simulate the test and to make sure that the machine complies with the requirements of the law that the accuracy of the readings has to be 99.95 percent of the marks,” Garcia added.

Once all the components of the VCMs are ready, the Election Management System–which contains all the data relevant to the polls such as name of the candidates, precinct numbers–is installed on the machines.

Meanwhile, Bautista said that compared to its old warehouse in Cabuyao, the new five-building compound is airier and more convenient for its employees.

BACKSTORY: Wanted: Warehouse for new voting machines

He also said that a viewing deck was constructed so that those interested can see the operations in the production area.

“The innovation of this warehouse is the construction of a viewing deck because in the interest of transparency, we are open to groups coming over,” Bautista said.

Interested groups should write a letter to the Comelec stating their desire to visit the warehouse. IDL