Comelec, Smartmatic go to Cebu

Last Thursday we had an expected treat when the Rotary Club of Cebu (Mother) played host to a joint Rotary meeting at the Casino Español to hear Arquimedes “Kimo” Machado, operations manager, and Heider Garcia, election systems manager, of Smartmatic-TIM, the consortium that won the bidding for the Commission on Elections’ automated counting machines. They went to Cebu with Comelec spokesman James Jimenez.

That was to be the biggest joint meeting of Rotary Clubs that I have seen in Cebu in a long time… with the Rotary Clubs of Cebu (Mother), RC Mandaue, RC Mandaue East, RC Mandaue North, RC Gloria Maris, RC Cebu Fuente, RC Mactan, RC Cebu Mabolo, and RC Banilad Metro. Perhaps it was due to the fact that it was the first time that the Comelec went to Cebu with the Smartmatic group. Earlier, I interviewed Jimenez and the Smartmatic officials on my TV show, “Straight from the Sky,” which we taped and will be shown in Metro Cebu this coming Monday evening.

Jimenez is a very articulate speaker and explained in great detail what to expect in the May 2010 polls. Truth to tell, this is the first time that we have a Comelec spokesman who knows what he’s talking about. Heider Garcia gave the Rotarians the mechanics of the automated counting system and in fact, they allowed a few Rotarians to participate in a mock election just to show how quickly one can vote using the Smartmatic automatic system. We timed this to be less than four minutes from the time you get your name, then your ballot, plus the time to fill it out and place it in the machine. Of course, you still have to dip your finger in indelible ink to prove that you have voted and to prevent you from voting again… and again.

The major difference between the old way of voting and the automated one is simple… in the past the voter has to write the names of the president, vice president and 12 senators, a congressman, a party-list group, governor, vice governor, city or municipal mayor and vice mayor and members of the provincial board or municipal or city council. That’s a lot of names to write in long hand, which during the counting are often misread by teachers because a lot of us have ugly handwriting… but often corrupt teachers use this as an opportunity to cheat for their political masters.

In the new system, the voter merely circles an oval beside the name of the officials seeking their votes… something that one can do so quickly. When the ballot is inserted into the machine, it can immediately count all the votes. So when the counting starts, the teachers really have nothing much to do, but switch on the computer which is autonomous or not linked to any other computer. The machine also has an emergency battery that would last more than 12 hours… so a brownout should not be a problem.

Only after the election officials like watchers and representatives of Namfrel and political parties are given their copies of the counted ballots, can the machine be brought to the main canvassing centers and then plugged into the main computer line and in less than three hours, we will have an idea who will be the next president and senators of this country! Smartmatic’s operation manager Arquimedes “Kimo” Machado told me that he’s proud of their system, which has been used in Peru, Argentina and Venezuela and are superior even to the automated machines in the United States. Although this remains to be seen and experienced!

Jimenez declared to the Rotarians that with this system, the Comelec could assure the Filipino people of clean and honest elections. That puts the “Hello, Garci” scandal into the dustbin of history. There’s also no more reason for teachers to cheat for their political masters, hence they will regain the respect of the people. But Jimenez clearly pointed out that this automated system wasn’t a “cure all” that promises to address all election-related problems. He said, “This system does solve vote-buying, coercion of voters and voter stupidity!” I fully agree… we just have too many crooked politicians here!

Already, one “bata-bata” of a politico was spotted nosing around with the Rotarians. Perhaps he was seeking some kind of connection with Smartmatic or finding ways how to outwit the computer. I’m sure that by now, he must have reported to his boss that the machines were just too high-tech for them to monkey around. So with a foolproof system, you can expect more coercion and vote-buying to surface in the coming polls. Meanwhile, even Congress must now be prepared for instant results so that when they canvass the votes for the president and vice president, they don’t have to wait for a month.. rather they can start the canvass two days after the elections are over.

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