Manila at a mall

I got great feedback from my column two weeks ago on the idea of using malls as voting venues in the future. Most of those who wrote in were in support of the idea. One reader’s e-mail went further than malls; actually his suggestion brings the vote closer to the voter, I excerpt from his analysis below.

Wilson YL wrote, “After the near fiasco created by Smartmatic/Comelec on the poll automation system, allow me to propose the following alternative voting system that might be used in future voting system. This may even serve as alternative to the Smartmatic system, which has brought about the logistical nightmare of making sure that PCOS machines are shipped with matching ballots for particular localities.

“It is also nightmarish to be printing so many formats of ballots and then have to get them shipped to specific precincts together with the specific USB drives that contain the programs to read the votes. Then it’s three years from now when we have to update and test new programs that will have been developed. I suggest the alternative of using touchscreen technology with thumb print readers. This proven technology would eliminate the bees, birds, and zombies (ghost and flying voters) from ever marring the elections again.

“With touchscreens, ballots would no longer be printed and this will reduce the cost of conducting future elections. Touchscreens would even facilitate voting by the illiterate and seniors with difficulty reading; these voters will just need to touch the photos of candidates they are voting for. Software for the blind could allow verbal voting.

Voting centers will replace voting precincts, where any voter can cast his votes anywhere (or in convenient places like malls) as the system can display all the local candidates from where the voter resides per voter registration record. This means that there will be no need to travel back to the provinces (imagine the transport savings). The system is intelligent enough to know which candidates you are entitled to vote for in your registered locality, aside from national candidates.

“Once a valid vote is cast, the central voting system will be notified to tag that the voter will no longer be allowed to vote at any other voting centers. Access to the voting centers’ computers will be done by using the voter’s thumbprint. This will also allow the central voting system to have real time information on how many have finished casting their votes at any time. After every valid vote cast, a voting log captures the voter’s choice and will be backed up into a CD/DVD only (not on USB drives) at end of day for distribution to political parties to settle any political protests that may arise. Indelible ink is then also applied to the voter’s finger as additional precaution.

“The backup voting log can also be used to redo the vote counting in case online connection is disrupted or not available. Voter registration will capture all relevant information of voter, including digital photo, thumbprint, residence, contact information, and other personal information. Candidate registration will also capture same information as those from a voter and the position he’s running for together with party affiliation.

“For voting centers without reliable online connection to central voting system, voter and candidate information can be sourced from local computers internally when the programs are loaded before distribution. Vote counting would then rely on the backup CD/DVD data that can be transmitted from any location later where online link is available or even brought to central voting system.

“By doing away with precinct voting, local politicians and warlords can no longer intimidate voters! This is the ultimate equalizer against intimidation and violence. The proposed system can also be easily adopted later for cyber voting via secure Internet browsers at embassies overseas, thus allowing overseas voters to participate easily and make a difference.

“Ports for USB drives will be disabled to reduce the chance of introducing illegal programs from compromising the integrity of the voting system by means of introducing them into the system from USB drives.”

“By adopting the proposed system, we not only save a lot of money and effort every time there is an election, the number of programs to maintain the system would also be far fewer and less nightmarish for the programmers than it is now. I believe the proposed system can be fully developed by our own brilliant IT professionals. I’ve read about their efforts to convince Comelec in the manual parallel count, which I find as very sane and legitimate. The cost of developing the entire system is definitely cheaper than what was paid to Smartmatic! As an IT professional, I know all the features I’ve proposed are currently possible and available. The operating systems for these features to work can also be those already running our Smart phones — we could all vote using our cell phones, which almost everyone in the Philippines has (we could text vote our next president!).”

Well, Wilson, I agree with you that local technical talent is available for almost anything we can imagine. It’s just that our government and even private corporations are biased against Filipino professionals — be it in IT, or design (my field).

Another writer, Cathy Q., wrote, “I read with keen interest your article entitled ‘Megalection 2022.’  A day or two before your article came out, I posted my own thoughts about the election on our website, http://goodlivingbf.weebly.com/2/post/2010/05/first-post.html, where I made a suggestion along the same lines.  Your suggestion seems more plausible.

“My utmost concern and goal is for elections not only to be a once-every-three-or-six-year event but that they should be a continuous process of voter education, voter accreditation, voter empowerment, cleansing of voter lists, Comelec preparation, technology and systems upgrading, etc.  For this reason, I suggested a permanent place for this, which would be the ideal scenario; but getting the malls for this would be a viable alternative. I hope your suggestion will gather momentum and that you will write the Comelec about it as soon as they have finished their business with the current election.  It’s never too early to prepare for the next one.”

Thanks Cathy, I hope the mall magnates and government listen to suggestions like these. Malls could even rope in sponsors for thousands of touchscreen TVs. Hey, we may even vote in 3D in the near future!

Having mulled all this the past few weeks, I went and visited the nearest mall, which happened to be SM Megamall. I was delighted to find an interesting exhibit at the mall’s big and relatively new central atrium. It was an exhibit on the Burnham plan for Manila, which he drew up in 1905. I had curated the exhibit back in 2003 for the Metropolitan Museum. I was glad to find out that the museum had not only kept the exhibit intact but had, in fact, exhibited it nationwide. Now, it’s making the rounds of SM malls.

The exhibit “Manila: A City Beautiful” presents the historical context for the grand “big” plans of Daniel Burnham. He also did plans for Baguio and a coastal highway from Manila up to Cavite (which only now is being completed, over a century later). Copies of the plans are displayed along with blowups of my collection of postcards and images from Manila’s glorious past. There are also maps from the era as well as models of the old elegant Post Office and the old Jones Bridge; both designed by famed Filipino architect Juan Arellano.

I viewed the exhibit for a while and was pleased to see that it attracted a sizeable crowd of people, the very young, teens, and the more mature like me. Well, maybe because it was a weekend. Nevertheless, it was a great venue to pick up something worthwhile while shopping and enjoying the cool air-conditioning.

This just proves that malls may be good for more than just recreational retail — they are perfect for elections, art, culture, and even religious celebrations. Are malls the plazas of the 21st century? Burnham did not anticipate how big malls would be, or the concept of malls themselves, especially Filipino malls, a key structure in all Filipino urban areas today. Our Filipino urbanity is evolving just like our democracy. The essence of good democracy, just like modern urbanity, is openness to varied options and viewpoints, the embracing of cultural difference and diversity, and the respect for all the lives of all citizens, all the time … and soon, mall the time!

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com. The exhibit “Manila: A City Beautiful” will be on display also at the SM Megamall Atrium until June 9. It will move to The Block at SM City North EDSA from June 10 to 30.