Smartmatic demonstrates features of vote counting machines

MANILA, Philippines – Smartmatic demonstrated yesterday the security features of the vote counting machines (VCM) to be used in next year’s elections to volunteers of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV). 

The demonstration was held at the Cardinal Sin Auditorium at the Paco Catholic School in Manila.

Smartmatic project manager Marlon Garcia gave assurance the VCMs are secured with multi-level 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. (The) 256-bit keys encryption is utilized, doubling the security over their predecessors,” Garcia said.

The demonstration also showcased the VCM’s unique user name and password for each member of the Board of Election Inspectors. BEI members also have their own digital certificates to be used to initialize the machine and control access to its functionalities, as well as digitally sign electoral results.

The VCMs complement security features in the ballots that include a bar code containing the city or municipality, district and clustered precinct. 

All ballots will be printed on special security paper with an ultraviolet (UV) color-shifting ink proprietary pattern that cannot be reproduced by a photocopier or scanner.

UV sensors

The VCMs are designed with UV sensors that can detect the presence or absence of UV patterns, which ensure that only authentic ballots will be recognized. It can also store the election definition files, election results package, log files, all reports and the digital images (both sides) of all ballots assigned to a precinct, and is protected with digital signatures and encryption algorithms.

The machines are equipped with a voter verified paper audit trail that enables auditability of the election system.