Debunking the infallibility of PCOS machines (Part 1)

Computerizing the elections offered so many promises to the voters. With the help of the PCOS machines, election results were promised to be fast, accurate and true. In a country like the Philippines, promising honest elections is huge, if not an impossibility. As a journalist of almost 30 years, I see this headline still eludes us all. A headline reading, “Philippine elections 100% honest!” would be a dream come true.  The PCOS machines and the system that operates it offer exactly this.  The machines may not influence the votes, but these will definitely and accurately count them. Or so COMELEC and SMARTMATIC say.

Fears surfaced during the 2010 elections --- the vulnerability of the vaunted PCOS machines exploited and exposed.  Machines have no soul to be judged by.  Machines are programmed and operated by men.  Men are driven by various motivations. The COMELEC are people.  SMARTMATIC is a group of people.  Not all people are cheaters.  But fact remains, when a system enables or allows corruption, there will be corruption.

The COMELEC trumpets that everything is all set for the elections. Reality is, not too many ask the right questions regarding the vulnerability of the PCOS machines, especially in the hands of a compromised technician. The majority of the population is not computer savvy, nor do they possess the know-how as to how exactly do the PCOS machines work. Law provides that the source code of the PCOS system must be made available to anyone who wishes to know how these machines are programmed. To this day, this source code is kept from the knowledge of the public and from the scrutiny of the experts. The current legal entanglements of middlemen SMARTMATIC with the real owners of the system, Dominion, prevent the access to the source code. COMELEC leadership hisses at every criticism from the IT expert groups and dismisses the election watchdogs as uninformed, ignorant or malicious. How could it be that these different, separate groups demand for the answers to the same questions?  It is taxing having to listen to the technical details of what provisions in election law had been violated in 2010 and continue to be unaddressed for the May elections.  While the logic of these complaints is inescapable, the ordinary voter will not have the patience to listen or to try to understand.  It will take some news incident that clearly showcases the fallibility of the system that might just help the masa understand that they must demand for foolproof assurance that computerization is better than manual elections.

And here it is.  The COMELEC should have no choice but to explain and assure people about what happened with the votes for the 2010 mayoralty race in Compostela, Cebu.

No one questioned the victory of President Noynoy Aquino based on his number of votes shown from the PCOS machines because the lead in the earlier surveys  and his popularity at the time mirrored his inevitable win. No one dared question as it was to be misconstrued as questioning the credibility of PNoy's win.  But even then some were certain -- as more and more are now made aware -- that the cheating appears to be “customized.”

Manipulation is tailored for a particular area or candidate alone. Well, at least, this is what it looks like, what with the results from the manual recount for the mayoralty race in Compostela, Cebu?  The recount demanded by former contender Richie Wagas against Joel Quiño, with the Regional Trial Court finally happened after almost three years since the last elections. Quino allegedly won the election in 2010, and has been sitting as mayor since. The manual recount requires opening the machine and studying the election forms and tallying the counts manually --- comparing the results with the PCOS transmitted totals. Well, I don't know about you.  As far as aim concerned, the differences in count were nothing less than shocking.