DATE: November 6, 2002

PUBLICATION: Philippine Star

TITLE: How will we vote in 2004?

AUTHOR: Boo Chanco

No, I don’t mean if we will all vote for Gloria, or for Roco or even Fernando Poe. Now that Congress is putting on the finishing touches to the law that will allow overseas Pinoys to vote, how are they going to cast their votes, as in the physical requirements for voting? For that matter, how are we, who all live in these islands, going to cast our votes? Will we touch icons or pictures in a computer screen or write down our candidates the old fashioned way?

We are living in the age of the Information Superhighway and the Automatic Teller Machines. But despite the presence of a law mandating the Comelec to computerize our voting, I doubt if 2004 would be any different from past elections. I am almost resigned to the reality that this present generation of political leaders must die first before we can migrate into a computerized kind of voting.

Actually, if you think about it, a system of computerized voting could be used to regularly go back to the people to ask for their opinion on key issues of the day. We would still need the Pepe Mirandas and Mahar Mangahases of the world to frame the questions and help analyze the results. But the data gathering could be done through those same voting machines. That would make the hardware useful in between elections, in helping make our system of government more democratic.

But enough daydreaming. The problem at hand is, how do we handle the 2004 elections? Plaridel, one of the e-groups I subscribe to, carried a proposal for a dream computerized voting system at the least cost. A Filipino programmer has figured it all out but I wonder if our politicians and Comelec bureaucrats would even hear of it. (Chairman Abalos told me, as I was editing this column, that he likes the idea but is constrained by the limitations in our present election law).

The politicians are uneasy with any system that they don’t sufficiently understand, because that makes it difficult to subvert. In the past, the Comelec bureaucrats have shown preference for a high priced Photokina type of proposal. But anyway, here is a gist of the proposal called Botong Pinoy.

Picture this scenario: You go to your registered precinct and you find a computer that checks if you are registered to vote in that precinct. You don’t need an ID card because the computer works by recognizing your face (after it has checked your face at the time of registration against all the faces of all registered voters at the speed of one million faces per second to make sure you have not registered more than once).

After it recognizes you by face, it then checks your scanned fingerprint against the fingerprint that you have on file in the Comelec database to make sure it really is you before you are allowed to vote. The computer uses the latest facial and fingerprint biometric technology.

After making sure you are who you say you are, the system then guides you through the entire voting process by talking to you in Pilipino, English or the dialect prevalent in the region where the precinct is located. A computer that actually talks to you!

The voting system then allows you to vote for the candidates or parties of your choice simply by pointing at their names, faces or parties on the computer screen as the faces and names of candidates for each position are displayed on the screen. Then it automatically prints your ballot showing all the candidates that you voted for, complete with your computer generated fingerprint, so that the ballot can be used for a manually tabulated audit count to avoid any questions on the integrity of the computer system.

The voting system automatically tabulates all votes cast in each precinct, then transmits the tabulated votes for the precinct at the end of the voting day to a secure Internet Website where its electronic signature is verified before it is allowed to post its tabulated votes. All the votes from all precincts are also automatically tabulated on a Barangay, City or Municipal, Provincial or Regional and National levels. It totally eliminates the pernicious practice of Dagdag-Bawas that has eroded the trust of the people in the electoral process.

This voting system uses the latest state-of-the-art computer systems, every election year. And the best part is, it would cost the Comelec only one fourth to one fifth of the cost of acquiring some of the systems now being peddled by politically-connected and commission hungry vendors.

For sure, it sounds too good to be true. But after reading the brief on Botong Pinoy, the whole thing becomes plausible enough for me. In fact, someone in the Plaridel e-group commented that this was the design used in the recent elections in Brazil. As it turns out, we don’t have to totally re-invent a proven system. They are also using the rudiments of such a system right here. The system is being used by the NBI for their clearance kiosks and by the LTO for the driver’s licenses. It shouldn’t be difficult to adapt it for Comelec.

Unlike those expensive counting machines they tried in ARMM which uses special paper and malfunctions under our humid weather conditions, the proposed Botong Pinoy uses ordinary PCs already available in government and private sector offices. No need for a Photokina type of budget outlay.

Comelec could also decide to lease or borrow the machines but even if it buys some of them, there will always be a lot of room for future upgrading in much the same way that we upgrade our personal computers. This way, the Comelec system is not too sensitive to obsolescence as technology continues on its logarithmic climb to faster, better, smaller and cheaper computer systems.

I am sure the proponents of this system have tried to reach the ears of the Comelec commissioners. Perhaps this is the system that Chairman Abalos is looking for, specially as a means to solve the logistical problem of dealing with the OFW vote. It deserves a more extensive public hearing and discussion.

But since we don’t have all the time in the world to debate this. I would like to end with the thought that if the world financial system, hundreds if not thousand of times more complex than voting for our officials and also one that requires almost 100 percent guarantee against fraud, can be designed and used worldwide, Comelec’s task is not that impossible. That is, if the politicians in Congress trust them enough to do what is necessary to get the job done.