Errors found in source codes, voting machines

MANILA, Philippines – Less than three months before the May 9 polls, more errors have been discovered in the source codes of the automated election system (AES).

In a press briefing yesterday, Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista said SLI Global Solutions Inc. notified the Comelec that there were problems with the source codes of the consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) and the vote counting machines (VCM).

Based in Denver, SLI was contracted by Comelec to certify the source codes of the VCM, CCS and Election Management System (EMS) before they are put together for use in the coming polls.

“In a way, they are our independent adviser and in doing their work, their job is to look for things in the system that need to either be addressed, improved or rectified. Over the past few days, they have seen certain findings which they believe should be addressed,” Bautista said.

Consolidation and canvassing system

Last Monday, Comelec had to postpone depositing the source codes at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas after SLI detected compatibility problems in the CCS.

SLI found that while the CCS had to be “stand alone,” the system was found to be “network dependent.” This prompted the Comelec to re-do the “trusted build” of the EMS, which serves as the brain of the entire system.

Just like the VCM, the CCS was supplied by the joint venture of Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp.

According to SLI senior test manager Michael Santos, the firm also found that the ISO image in the CCS source code could not be installed during the trusted build process.

“That necessitates a rebuild of the trusted build of the CCS ISO image. We don’t see it actually during the build process itself but once we got done building that image, we sent it to the laboratory, we went to install it and realized there was an issue,” Santos explained.

Vote counting machines

During the testing of the VCM, SLI also found that it could detect even small ink spots, causing the machines to reject the ballots. The VCM posted one- to two-percent rejection rate.

“Just a couple of spots in the ballots, the VCM detecting them and rejecting them, which is a good thing because it is showing that it’s capable enough to catch just about any mark,” Santos said.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez maintained that the issue should not be a cause of concern.

“This is a new VCM… The situation we are facing here is an ‘overly sensitive self-diagnosing mechanism’ that wasn’t in the old precinct count optical scan machines. There has been a lot of changes and a lot of improvements and so, definitely, you expect a new crop of issues to come up,” he said.

Jimenez said that to address the problem, the threshold of the sensitivity of the VCM would be adjusted.

Bautista explained the Comelec could not turn off the detection feature of the VCM as it was meant to address the problems on digital lines, which he described as a “dangerous ailment” that surfaced on the ballots in the 2013 elections.

He gave assurance that the Comelec would be reviewing its contact with Smartmatic-TIM to determine if the joint venture can be held liable for the errors.

‘No worry’

The Comelec chief also maintained that despite the technical issues in the machines, there is no cause for concern.

“The problems have been contained. It is good that we discover these things now than later when we could no longer correct or improve them,” he said.

Bautista expressed confidence that the printing of official ballots would be completed by April 25 as scheduled since the ballots would be shorter by four inches, from 27 inches in 2013 elections.

“We are just fine-tuning the system… we still have 88 days. We still have time. The problems now are still manageable,” he added.

Drilon: Look into campaign spending

Meanwhile, Senate President Franklin Drilon vowed that he would push for reforms in the election code following reports of overspending by some candidates.

Drilon said the Comelec should also ask candidates to explain their expenses even before the 90-day campaign period starts.

“We have to revisit the election code. It is harsh not to count the election expenses where the expenses are incurred before the filing of certificate of candidacy or even before the campaign period… The expenses before the campaign period are not counted and that is a fiction that is created by law,” he pointed out.

“As I said, we must look for a solution to these outrageous expenditures that we are exposed to if you desire to win. The report is that even before the start of the campaign, some of the candidates are already spending P600 million just for TV ads,” he added. – With Christina Mendez