Commission on Elections Chair Andres Bautista said the poll body will strive to make the May 9 polls the most transparent in the country’s history, even as poll watchdogs questioned the security features of the voting machines.
At the hearing of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Election System Wednesday, Bautista said all the safeguards provided for in the automated election law were in place for the 2016 polls, “and in fact, even more.”
He cited the expanded digital signatures for Board of Election Inspectors, a feature that was not used in the 2010 and 2013 elections.
“We will endeavor to make this 2016 election the most transparent in Philippine history,” Bautista said at the hearing.
Bautista made the statement even as he noted that the recent Supreme Court decision requiring the poll body to print voter receipts dealt a “curve ball” to its preparations, coming just 60 days before the polls.
Comelec Executive Director Jose Tolentino further enumerated the features of the vote counting machines to be used in the May polls.
According to Tolentino, the vote counting machines for the 2016 elections have two USB ports intended solely for the modem to be used for the transmission of results. Any other gadget inserted in these ports would not be recognized.
“So that’s our security,” Tolentino said.
He said that in the 2010 and 2013 elections, only the digital signature generated by the precinct count optical scan machines were used. But in the coming elections, the vote counting machine would have a digital signature, including those of two other members of the Board of Election Inspectors. The BEI’s digital signatures would act as PIN codes provided by the Comelec.
The Comelec will also be issuing a voter receipt, as directed by the Supreme Court.
As for the indelible ink, this would be placed on voters’ fingernails before the receipt is issued to the voter. The voter will then be required to drop the receipt inside a receptacle before he leaves the precinct.
Ultraviolet light sensors, first featured in the 2013 ballot, remain another security feature.
Tolentino said the vote counting machines will simultaneously save data from the main storage to the backup storage, a feature not available in the two previous automated elections. Leila B. Salaverria
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