Efforts continuing to ensure poll transparency

Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2019 16:30:13 +0000

A NEW effort to ensure transparency, auditability, and credibility in Philippine elections has been launched in the House of Representatives with the filing of House bill 3896 by Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte, for a combination of manual voting and counting and electronic transmission and canvassing of results.

The adoption of such a hybrid election system has long been proposed by many quarters, especially after such unexpected glitches as long delays in the transmission of results from precincts to canvassing centers. His proposed hybrid election system, Congressman Villafuerte said, will enhance transparency in the voting and counting, in answer to charges that under the present system, only the voting machines know how the votes were counted.

This issue of transparency has also been raised in many other countries that have adopted automatic elections. A new machine is now being developed in the United States, which has been hailed by observers as a breakthrough in voting secrecy and transparency. It was developed by London-based Smartmatic with Los Angeles County, the biggest jurisdiction in size and number of voters in the United States.

The new machine features a simple process where voters mark their choices on a touchscreen. The machine then prints the choices on a paper ballot, allowing the voter to verify and even make corrections, before officially casting his ballot.

LA County Registrar Dean Logan cited the transparency and straightforwardness of the new system. “There is no ambiguity in this ballot. When it prints out, there is no pregnant chads, no deciphering the intent of the voter. It’s very clear. It’s human readable text,” he said. “The device can be used in 13 languages and exceeds national security standards for voting.” To ensure the most in security, voting machines are designed to stand alone and are not connected to any kind of network or the Internet.

Once Smartmatic and LA County finish testing the new election s
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