“There is no turning back.”
If there are still people who insist that automated elections are unreliable because they are vulnerable to fraud, maybe we should ask them if this is merely a case of sour grapes, having lost in a previous poll and unwilling to accept the result. Or perhaps they want the old-school manual elections because that’s where they can more easily resort to cheating through dagdag-bawas or even intimidation and violence.
What’s clear at this point is that automated elections are here to stay, and there’s no turning back.
The Commission on Elections appears adequately prepared for next month’s presidential elections. In fact, since 2010, we’ve had generally peaceful and credible elections, thanks to automated polls.
Thus, the poll body now enjoys the highest trust rating in its history. The Comelec chalked up a dismal trust rating of 40 percent during the heyday of manual elections. But public satisfaction with its performance increased to a historic high of 74 percent immediately after the first successful automated elections in 2010.
In 2019, a Pulse Asia survey showed that 84 percent of voters trusted election results — 94 percent said the vote counting machines were easy to use, 91 percent want automated voting in future elections. Until now, however, we still have skeptics who try to discredit the efforts of the Comelec in implementing the Automated Election System (AES). You guessed right: they come from the ranks of losing candidates.
But there is no denying the fact that the AES has ensured the sanctity of the ballot through meticulous auditing of the source code and software. We’re told that the source code is accredited by an international certifying entity, and reviewed by local experts and even by political parties. The Comelec has turned over the source code to the Central Bank where it will remain under lock and key until the poll body is ready to install it. As soon as the source code was officially turned over to the Comelec, it went through an unbroken chain of custody totally controlled by the agency.
In 2010, there were 176 reported cases of election-related violence. This was a big improvement from previous manual elections. In 2016 the Philippine National Police reported 106 cases. Three years later, the police recorded 43 cases of election-related violence—a significant 60 decrease from 2016.
In past manual elections, teachers who served in polling places were sometimes harassed or threatened by rabid supporters of candidates. With automated polls, the Department of Education (DepEd) has reported fewer cases of harassment and violence against teachers who serve as poll watchers.
The economy has benefited as well from peaceful automated elections. After the 2010 elections, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSEi) posted a 3.85 gain while the Philippine peso rose by 1 percent against the dollar. After the 2016 elections, the PSEi climbed 221 points or 3.09 percent to close at 7,369.52. It would eventually surpass the 7,500 mark, driven by the euphoria from the peaceful elections.
It is said that no candidate in this country ever loses, since they invariably claim they’ve been cheated. That makes election lawyers happy. But since adopting AES, election protests have actually declined: there were only 49 cases filed in 2010; 37 in 2013; 28 in 2016 and 20 in 2019. None of these cases, it should be pointed out, resulted in a reversal.
The automated election system is auditable and provides both paper and digital votes, and reports are tallied to confirm the accuracy of the votes and outcomes. The Philippine Statistics Authority held random manual audits of the 2019 automated elections and found an astonishing 99.9953 percent match between automated count and manual returns. In fact, since 2010, the AES has been consistently 99 percent accurate.
Those who have raised serious doubts about the credibility and accuracy of automated polls claim to be technical experts. But the AES has been able to withstand close scrutiny by genuine experts.
In perhaps 48 hours after the voting on May 9, we may already know the winners. This would be a far cry from previous manual elections whose results took many days to determine with finality. With the automated political exercise, we can already conclude that manual elections, with their vulnerability to dagdag-bawas and other forms of fraud, are a thing of the past.
What’s important is that Comelec is prepared for contingencies. At least with automated elections, there is little, if no possibility, of people trying to snatch the voting machines and run away with them, as what happened in previous manual elections.
There should be no going back to manual elections as certain quarters insist. Why do they want a return to manual elections anyway? So that the dagdag-bawas operators can once again resort to manipulation and thwart the people’s will?
