OMRs hack-proof?

I read with interest the above item posted last October 9 by Sheila Crisostomo which quoted Smartmatic International Corp. giving assurance that “ the Optical Mark Readers (OMRs) to be used in 2016 elections cannot be hacked as it would take 20 years to tamper with the voting  machines.”

I am sure Smartmatic already knows the poll anomaly that happened in Dinalupihan, Bataan in the 2013 elections. It has been reported well enough by the media. The PCOS machines had either been pre-programmed or hacked despite previous similar assurances that the machines were tamper proof. The evidence of poll irregularity were shown in the bundles of uniformly wrapped ballots found in 78 out of 80 ballot boxes. Smartmatic might argue that the manual count  was done on fraudulent, substitute ballots and therefore would not reflect the PCOS count. The PCOS count is accurate. It’s the ballots that are fake.

Sorry, but that argument will not pass. If the PCOS machines had counted the votes accurately, then why the need to have an elaborate cover-up operation with the use of fraudulent, substitute ballots. It would have been far easier to have the genuine ballots counted manually and show that the results tally with the PCOS count, not just on the protested position of Mayor but on the other candidates as well. Clearly, it was either the machines were pre-programmed or they were hacked. – Felicito Payumo, Bataan