Voters in the forthcoming Aug. 11 Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) polls will be the first to use the world’s most secured and advanced voting machine.
Kevin Chung, Avante International Technology Inc. chief executive officer, yesterday said that the Philippines is getting the best technology their company could offer.
“The voting solution to be deployed in the Philippines represents the highest standard of election integrity and auditability since it utilizes almost all of the innovations patented by Avante over the last eight years, since the company embarked on solving the US voting system issue highlighted in the Bush-Gore election in the year 2000,” Chung said.
The Commission on Elections, earlier, forged a P125-million contract with Avante for the purchase of optical mark reader (OMR) machines to be used in the ARMM elections.
Chung noted that the specifications and processes adopted by the Comelec are more secure and advanced than similar systems used in other countries.
He said that the Avante system is the only one that met the OMR counting accuracy requirement of 99.99 percent and the Comelec is the first to require the OMR system to automatically detect and reject faked and counterfeited ballots.
“The Philippines is also the first to require automatic detection and prevention of accidental or intentional double-counting,” Chung said, adding that the security of Avante OMR system also provides for the automatic detection and rejection against ballot box substitution type.
According to Chung, the optical scan voting solution is the only system to provide the digital ballot image audit trail that is captured during the scanning and counting process, to prevent post-counting tampering.
He furthered that Avante customized its election solution to incorporate many other processes to help deter, prevent, and limit any potential physical and logistical tampering at the precinct level.
Aside from OMR, Comelec will also be using direct recording electronic (DRE) in the ARMM elections. DRE allows voting through touch-screens. – Mayen Jaymalin