Tuesday, May 15, 2007 Cabaero: Technology highs and lows during elections By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
ONE of the factors that made the voting yesterday unique from past electoral exercises was the intensified use of technology to help voters and to monitor the conduct of the polls.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec), largely known to be jurassic and technology phobic, has decided to take on the technological curve. Thanks mostly to its education and information department headed by the energetic James Jimenez.
The Comelec, like media organizations and citizen-led watchdogs, used websites, blogs, chat rooms and mobile phones to issue and receive reports or complaints.
In the 2004 presidential elections, the entry of technology was seen in text messaging for survey purposes. This time, we have multiple platforms to get services for finding a precinct, making complaints and reporting irregularities.
The poll body used for the first time text messaging and chat, aside from the traditional mediums. It had a precinct finder via short message service (SMS) where voters sent comelectxt precinct, full name and birthdate to get the precinct number. Its complaint mechanism included text messaging where one could text comelectxt_report_name/report then send to 2898.
Through chat, the Sun.Star Publishing Inc. hosted the Comelec’s exclusive online hotline at www.sunstar.com.ph/chat. It opened at 6 a.m. election day, May 14, and will close at 6 a.m. today, May 15.
The Comelec has its website at www.comelec.gov.ph and a blog at www.bagongbotante.com.
Media organizations and election watchdogs used SMS, picture messages from camera phones, websites and blogs to issue immediate reports.
According to Jimenez, the poll body is using technology as a means to “demystify” the elections and empower ordinary citizens.
There were a plethora of information sources for voters that it became easy to get overwhelmed or confused as to where to go to get specific data. In such situations, authority and credibility of the information source mattered most. On the question of precinct assignments, for example, the voter’s tendency was to go to the Comelec for information.
But, at the height of the search for precincts, the Comelec servers hosting the website, blogs and SMS got overwhelmed and conked out on the voters while precincts were still open. This downtime caused a lot of frustrated voters to curse or give up.
The Comelec was unable to meet the volume of inquiries via its website and text message service.
These kinks only prove the wisdom in postponing the computerization of the electoral process. Imagine if the entire process was computerized and there was a major breakdown in the poll body’s servers.
Republic Act 9369 provides that before the automated system is implemented nationwide in 2010, it should be pilot-tested in at least two highly urbanized cities and two provinces each in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao in the 2007 elections.
But the Comelec decided not to implement automation this time. It was operationally impossible, it said. The Comelec was right, after all, to postpone automation.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. The new practices that cropped up in yesterday’s election are expected to evolve further before the next polling, the crucial presidential elections, in year 2010.
