|
Monday, October 13, 2003
Mongaya: Computerization not a solution
By ANOL MONGAYA
MANY among us believe the computerization of our voting process is a solution to cheating. I think this remains to be seen. Unfortunately, it would harder to prove fraud and cheating if somebody succeeds in tampering with the system.
Note that computers rely on data fed into it. For example, a political party in power could maneuver to have all its supporters registered while making it difficult for diehards belonging to competing groups from registering. Though I still have to hear complaints from the local opposition, some readers texted that City Hall’s Kaohsiung buses were used in hauling voters to the Comelec.
We must also make sure that no hacker from within or outside Comelec could tamper with the program and data in the automated counting machines and input a computerized dagdag-bawas scheme.
Johnny Mercado recently directed the attention of other Sun.Star columnists to the Businessworld column of Mareng Winnie Monsod on the case filed by the Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines (ITFP) at the Supreme Court. The group of Philippine IT experts voiced concern on the kind of machines bought by the Comelec.
They pointed that the machines are not standalone and have communication ports. This means other data could be fed into the computers while existing data could be manipulated. They said the machines are vulnerable to dagdag-bawas artists.
In her column, Mareng Winnie said: “Dagdag-Bawas operations will not only NOT be eliminated, but they can be carried on at high-tech levels.”
In the US, controversy surrounds a report published on the Internet by researchers at the Information Security Institute of John Hopkins University. Avi Rubin, technical director of the Institute, and two other colleagues suggested that one of the electronic voting systems made by a manufacturer (who had secured orders worth over $50 million) fell “far below the most minimal security standards applicable.” The 34-page report in PDF format can be viewed at www.avirubin.com/vote.pdf.
The other night, LDP Rep. Carlos Padilla pointed out several flaws in the country’s computerization of the 2004 elections that makes it vulnerable to fraud.
Padilla pointed out that in the United States, voters drop their ballot inside a voting machine right at the voting center. The vote is then registered at the central office of the election body. However, the Philippines could not afford automated voting machines in each polling center. Hence, voters would still have to drop their ballots inside a ballot box, which in turn would be taken to the office of the Comelec where the ballots would be counted using counting machines.
This system is vulnerable to switching during the transport of the ballot boxes. Switching could also be done inside the Comelec itself. Padilla said that in the old system, a political party watcher would have copies of the election returns that they could use to compare results counted at the polling center and the results reported at the Comelec. They won’t have any in the new system.
Moreover, he said, voters would not write the names of the candidates anymore. They would either place a check in the appropriate blanks, or block out or underline appropriate letters. No more fake ballots with the same handwriting on it. Thus, it would be so easy to manufacture fake ballots and more difficult to prove fraud.
To counter this, the opposition needs to recruit people who would monitor the whole process from the voting to the transfer of ballot boxes and in the actual counting. “The process would be very expensive for the opposition,” Padilla said.
Perhaps, the Philippines should study the system India plans to put in place for its elections in September 2004. I gathered that Malaysia, Bangladesh and even the United Kingdom plan to introduce the Indian Electronic Voting Machines that depends on the manual operation of the voter. The next general elections in India will be its first all-electronic poll using over 800,000 such machines. The Indian system uses no ballots and a voter’s vote is automatically counted nationwide. It is like voting using an ATM machine and the results are known in only a few hours.
(Send your reactions to Superbalita@sunstar.com.ph or anol_cebu@hotmail.com or text to 09179761193) |
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
