Availability of experts to handle machines worries poll officers

WITH the 2010 elections being the first automated polls in the country, what concerns election officers most is the availability of technicians.

This was the common issue raised in a meeting among election officers, said Commission on Elections (Comelec) Provincial Election Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano.

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Castillano assured the officers there will be one technician for every precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine.

There will be one technician for every precinct and a supervisor for every 10 precincts.

Some members of the board of election inspectors (BEI) will also be trained and accredited by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The BEIs will be trained the entire month of March while election officers and election assistants will undergo training on Feb. 19 to 25. Castillano and other supervisors had their training last month.

There will be six servers at the receiving end of the transmission from the PCOS. These are the city or municipal board of canvassers, central Comelec server, the
Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), the dominant majority party, dominant minority party and the citizen’s arm.

Voting is between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., or until there is no one within 30 meter radius of the precinct who intends to vote.

A total of 22 election returns (ERs) will be printed by the PCOS.

PCOS machines, said Castillano, should have been deployed three days before the elections. Distribution will start a week before the elections.

Diagnostic tests will be conducted on the machines to ensure all systems and programs are working.

Members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines will be tasked to guard the ballots and the machines.

On election day, before voting opens, the PCOS machine will be made to “initialize.” Castillano said this is a process wherein the PCOS will be made to report an output, which should be zero, indicating that the machine has not been used or voted upon.

This will be done two times.

“This is the safety measure that the Comelec has initiated for transparency’s sake because there are allegations that the machines could be pre-programmed,” Castillano said.