Transparent and Credible

Election System
(TCrES)

Namfrel TransparentElections.org
/
.ph

Precinct Automated
Tallying System
(PATaS)

Patas ang labanan,

pag PATaS ang bilangan

Voting;
Precinct
countin
g

transport

Municipal
Board of
Canvassers
Provincial
Board of
Canvassers
National
Board of
Canvassers

Voting;
Municipal
transport or
Precinctelectronic transmissionBoard of
countin
Canvassers
g
PCOS counting

PATaS

Simul laptop count;

projected to big screen;
counts compared; laptop
electronically transmits.

Provincial
Board of
Canvassers
National
Board of
Canvassers

Objectives of this
presentation

Concerns about Smartmatics PCOS, as

experienced in 2010 and 2013
Concerns about manual precinct
counting, as experienced in the past
How to mitigate them
Serve as guide to COMELEC on choice
of solution

Lets categorize these

concerns according to

Accuracy
Ability to prevent cheating
Transparency
Speed

Accuracy

PCOS

No mock election conducted by Smartmatic

has produced an accuracy rate of 99.995% or
better (1 error in 20,000)
The 2010 Random Manual Audit (RMA)
resulted in only a 99.6% accuracy rate (80)
The July 24-25, 2012 mock elections in
Congress resulted in only a 97.215%
accuracy rate (557)
The 2013 RMA resulted in only a 98.86%
accuracy rate (228)

PCOS
9% of the units failed to transmit,
electronically, in 2010; 23%, in 2013
What happened with the CF cards data
that were not transmitted?
Did Comelec complete the canvass?
Proclaiming 6 senators w/ only 24% of
precincts canvassed

PCOS

The Nueva Ecija case (one barangay):

RTC judge allowed the ballot boxes to be
opened
In three precincts, PCOS count differed from
manual count. Almost 100 vote difference in
one of the precincts.
What was significant was Mr. Brillantes
reaction to this case

How to mitigate?

Source code review

Digital signatures
CF cards should be WORM (Write Once, Read
Many)
Lower threshold for oval shading
Closer coordination with the telcos
But truly, the only real solution is NOT to
automate precinct-counting

But if we were to go manual

precinct-counting

Accuracy would also suffer because of

incorrect reading by the BEI. Intentional or
unintentional.

How to mitigate?

Use webcam to take a snapshot of the ballot;

project image on big screen as it is being
read. Bonus: we would have a complete file of
ballot images.

Voting;
Municipal
transport or
Precinctelectronic transmissionBoard of
countin
Canvassers
g
PCOS counting

PATaS

Simul laptop count;

projected to big
screen; counts
compared; laptop
electronically
transmits.
Webcam snapshot
projected as window in
big screen

Provincial
Board of
Canvassers
National
Board of
Canvassers

Accuracy rate ay di daya,

sa PATaS tayoy magtiwala

Ability to prevent
cheating

The choice is really very simple.

Where is it easier to cheat?

in public counting?
or
in secret counting?

Its a no-brainer, isnt it?

Sample program

Read ballot

Take picture image

Check for overvotes; nullify votes for

positions w/ overvotes

Convert shaded ovals to votes for candidates

Print vote confirmation (show null positions)

If vote NOT for favored candidate, transfer

vote to him (can set limits)
Store for later counting

PCOS

The Dinalupihan case:

The losing mayoralty candidate filed a protest.

His basis? At 7pm of Election Day, the MBOC
received results from a Barangay; upon checking,
they were told that it was impossible, because the
voting has just been closed, but there was still a
queue of voters outside. Affidavits were submitted.
After a long process that took two years, the RTC,
then the Comelec, finally allowed the opening of the
ballot boxes.
The judge also allowed both parties to photocopy
the ballots
They are still counting the votes manually and the
case is still sub judice.
BUT

PCOS

The May 20, 2015 Jarius Bondoc article,

simplified:

If Sen. Poe garnered 20,147,423 votes w/ 129 CoCs

canvassed (May 18 report), then the 175 CoCs left
should give her 27,331,775 more. She would then
garner more votes than the voter turn-out of 39MM.
But she didnt. COMELEC probably realized d fallacy
so instead, she only got 189,904 votes from the 175
CoCs for a total of 20,337,327 (June 7 report)
Her total votes were then reduced to 16,340,333
(July 11 report). No explanation that I know of.

GO FIGURE!

PCOS

System controls were very weak, esp.

in CCS. Was that incompetence? lack
of experience? Or was it intentional?
Why didnt Mr. Brillantes want to use
the COMELEC-developed CCS?
60-30-10

How to mitigate

Source code review

Use the COMELEC-developed CCS
Strengthen system controls
Employ ethical project managers
who are experienced&competent.

Manual precinct-counting

There will be increasing tension as the

long manual-count progresses.

How to mitigate

Identify the hot spots and assign

more police and military personnel to
those areas.
Consolidate partial results from
precincts; make available in website
Make ERs available in the public
website.

Voting;
Municipal
transport or
Precinctelectronic transmissionBoard of
countin
Canvassers
g
PCOS counting

PATaS

Simul laptop count;

projected to big
screen; counts
compared; laptop
electronically
transmits.
Webcam snapshot
projected as window in
big screen
Partial results (and
ERs later) available in
website

Provincial
Board of
Canvassers
National
Board of
Canvassers

Huli ang dayaan,

pag PATaS ang bilangan

Transparency

Why is transparency important?

If the voters do not see how their votes are

counted, how will they know that they were
counted correctly?
If theres cheating in manual precinctcounting, the voters and candidates would
see and would have a basis for protesting; in
automated precinct-counting, nobody sees
the cheating.
If automated canvassing were transparent,
voters could do their own consolidation; they
can then easily compare results.
Transparency is required by R.A. 9369.

Because of lack of transparency

when precinct-counting was
automated,

Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Australia

reverted from automated to manual precinctcounting.
18 of the 30 countries that have automated
their elections have apparently gone back to
manual precinct-counting.
Japan, Malaysia, United Kingdom, and most
developed countries have been using manual
precinct-counting since the beginning.

PCOS

Did anybody see how the votes were

counted?
Like asking Smartmatic technicians to count
the votes in a locked room, then slip out the
results after a few seconds.
So vulnerable to internal tampering.
Public website not complete, so cannot
validate consolidation.
ERs not in website

Its not the people who vote that

count, its the people who count
the votes.
Joseph Stalin

How to mitigate

Cannot mitigate the systems inherent

lack of transparency
Public website must include complete
set of ERs, SoVs, and CoCs.

Kita ng taong bayan,

pag PATaS ang magbibilang

Speed

PCOS

Former Chairman Melo announced partial

results even before the voting closed.
Dinalupihan case: Results received for
canvassing even before the voting closed in
subject precincts.
Actually, not all that fast; proclamation was
on June 5, 2013, amidst confusing results.
Pres. Pnoy was proclaimed on June 10, 2010.
Former Pres. Estrada was proclaimed on May
30, 1998. That was pure manual.

How to mitigate

Employ ethical project managers

who are experienced&competent.
Make sure the source codes are
not tampered with!

Manual precinct-counting

Precinct-counting may take 12-24 hours.

How did COMELEC arrive at 384,000
precincts? There were only 225,000 in 2007.

(56,000,000)x(0.85)/100,000 = 476

120,000 precincts, then 397

150,000 precincts, then 317

200,000 precincts, then 238

Informal surveys:

Candidates prefer PCOS

COMELEC field personnel prefer PCOS

Teachers prefer PCOS

Manual precinct count and canvassing

Time Line

5-12
hrs

MANUAL PRECINCT
COUNTING

10 days

20

30

40

CITY/MUNICIPAL, PROVINCIAL
AND NATL CANVASSING
(can be as long as 42 DAYS!)

PCOS automated the precinct-counting: cost = P10 billion

PC servers, laptops automated the canvassing: cost = P300 million

How to mitigate

Re-design the forms.

Separate ballots for national, local, and party
list candidates and assign them different
colors.
Employ a separate team for the counting
(PICPA?).
Transmit partial results to unofficial quick
count server; consolidate; then publish.

Voting;
Municipal
transport or
Precinctelectronic transmissionBoard of
countin
Canvassers
g
PCOS counting

PATaS

Simul laptop count;

project to big screen;
counts compared;
laptop electronically
transmits.
Project webcam
snapshot as window in
big screen
Partial results (and
ERs later) available in
website
Redesign forms;
separate ballots for
national, local, party

Provincial
Board of
Canvassers
National
Board of
Canvassers

Ang bilis ay patas sa PCOS,

ngunit walang hocus pocus

Some additional
information

Features of the IDEAL system

(PATaS has all of them)

All steps transparent to the voting public

Manual voting and precinct tallying

Two trusted documents the ballot and the Election Returns

(ER)

ER data and canvassing results in digital format available in

a public website (any one can do his own tabulation and
compare with official results)

All data and results quickly verifiable to their original source

document - the ER, a trusted document

Software available for review by the public

Automated canvassing; therefore, can be completed within a week

No training on use of any machine for >50M voters

Cost effective at about P4B (Comelec only acquires laptops,

projectors, servers, printers, transmission facilities, project
management)

All the equipment can be donated to public schools after each

election; therefore, no storage and maintenance expenses;

Should the COMELEC adopt

PATaS, then they only need to

Bid out laptops, projectors, servers, printers, and

communications facilities (buy the machines from
suppliers in major cities, or through DBM; reduced
logistics for Comelec)

Bid out management and implementation of the

project (one management firm per region or group
of regions to spread out task)

TransparentElections is not a
vendor of election systems. It is
offering the PATaS solution to the
COMELEC (at no charge) because it
believes that it is the most
appropriate system for Philippine
elections.

Thank you!