According to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), with poll automation, they can proclaim the winners in a span of 36 hours unlike the manual counting where it takes weeks or even months to proclaim winners. Also, automated election could eliminate any forms of cheating that are rampant in the manual elections like “dag-dag bawas”, vote buying and the like. The COMELEC keeps on insisting every television and newspaper interviews that automated election guarantees no cheating of any kind. But there are those who do not believe that there will be no cheating in automated elections and in fact, worse cheating might happen or we will just transfer from manual to automated cheating.
Now the big questions running for those who are concerned about the new electoral system in the Philippines, will there be no cheating in this coming May 2010 election? Is “automated cheating” really possible? What are the forms of cheating this critics identified?
Being in the field of computing as a student, with a background in system automation and programming, yes there is a possibility that automated elections can be cheated.
NO AUTOMATED SYSTEM IS PERFECT
As what we learned in systems analysis, design and development, there is no such thing as a perfect system and poll automation is of no excuse to that fact. All systems have flaws that cannot be identified during the early stages of implementation and can only be detected thru time. Since this is the first time that we are going to implement this system, most likely unexpected failures will occur during the day of elections. Hardware failure, system crash, no network connections etc. will most likely happen so COMELEC should be aware of that. Contingency plans should be made. If these constraints will be exploited by those who want to cheat, then cheating will be successful.
AUTOMATED “DAG-DAG BAWAS”
Computers will not do its functions until it is being programmed. A program is a set of instructions that a computer or a machine follows. PCOS machines will be programmed first before it is used to read and count votes. Now this piece of software might be the key for what I called the automated “dag-dag bawas”. Why? Simply because this PCOS machines would simply evaluate the input coming from the scanner, then it will check the instruction to follow given the input and the condition. Take a look at this simple program which the machine will follow in a normal operation. This program has not been cheated yet.
Read input from the scanner
Value = input from the scanner
If (value == candidate A)
CandidateA_votes +1
If (value == candidate B)
CandidateB_votes +1
Etc…
The above instruction is the normal process of counting the vote of a candidate. Now if the source code of the machines is programmed for the benefit of a particular candidate and to manipulate votes of other candidates, then it’s cheating. That’s why I called it automated “dag-dag bawas”. There are a lot of ways to do it. Below are some of the possibilities of this form of cheating.
Read input from the scanner
Value = input from the scanner
If (value == candidate A)
CandidateA_votes +1
CandidateB_votes-1
OR
If (value == candidate B)
CandidateB_votes +1
CandidateA_votes +1
Etc…
Since it is the Smartmatic –TIM who will program all the PCOS machines, the COMELEC must be very vigilant during the programming process. They must hire computer experts or programmers that can understand and read the source codes of the program made by Smartmatic-TIM to prevent this form of cheating. The programs’ source code must also be viewed publicly and it must be ensured that the right program is installed to the machines. Though this cheating could easily be detected by COMELEC, yet they must be very careful because this form of cheating is 100% possible.
BEWARE OF HACKERS
There are a lot of hackers in the internet. There are hackers that have the ability to infiltrate a system in just a minute. One of the features of this automated election is that votes from a polling precinct will be transmitted to a remote site before the votes will be transferred from this remote site to the main server through the Internet. Yet the internet is the fastest way to transfer data from far places, but it not the safest medium either. Desperate candidates could hire the best hacker available to hack the server or to intercept data to be transferred and manipulate it to their advantage. According to the COMELEC, this form of cheating is impossible to happen because it is impossible to hack a system in a span of 3 days. But with the knowledge of new generation hackers and the capabilities of modern technology, everything now is possible. Extra effort in network security is crucial in the implementation of the system. Also a good encryption algorithm must be used to maintain data reliability and secrecy. This form of cheating can be prevented trough preparation and early interception of the possible attacks from the outside.
Aside from these new identified forms of cheating, the COMELEC must also prepare the traditional cheating tactics that are present during the election like power interruption (though PCOS can have a back –up power supply (UPS)), flying voters, and harassment on voting places during the elections. For sure these problems will still be present.
For the COMELEC, preparations for these problems play a major role in the success of this new electoral system in the Philippines. They still have 4 months to prepare not only the problems of cheating but also to educate voters with regards to this new system. Voter’s education will also play a critical role whether this automated system will be accepted by the Filipino voters. How will the voters use the system if they don’t know how to use it?
Let’s hope for the best for the COMELEC for a clean, honest, fast and most importantly historical elections come 2010.
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