Election Automation 2007

The lack of time is not an acceptable excuse for the pilot-testing of computerized elections for May 2007. Those shameless lawmakers who raped the constitution will be definitely trash by the electorate in a clean and honest election. Poll automation pilot project is long overdue. It should be implemented last 2004 national elections. Why the delay? I have the reason to believe that manual election favored Mrs. Gloria Arroyo in a dagdag-bawas scheme. History repeats itself over and over again until total revamp of the Comelec. Peoples’ trust and confidence to the election body is eroded and it may take years before it can redeem itself. How to restore Comelec’s reputation? Leadership and neutrality are the main public concerns. Poll automation may prevent massive electoral fraud.


Election Automation
Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., today announced that the poll body can no longer pilot test full automation in May 2007 due to the lack of time.
In a meeting with the members of the press, Abalos explained that the Advisory Council recommended not proceeding with end-to-end automation because of insufficient time. “Automated voting and counting have been given the thumbs down by the Advisory Council,” Abalos told reporters, The Advisory Council also pointed out that the Automated Election System bill has not yet been signed into law, and that no budget had been set aside for the implementation of the automation pilot tests.
However, Abalos said it is still possible for the COMELEC to implement electronic transmission if Congress would be able to enact the law authorizing the COMELEC to use such a system. According to him, the Council had expressed the belief that it would be more prudent to focus on electronic transmission since this required less preparation time than the automation of voting and counting.
“For the electronic transmission it would still depend on whether the bill would be a law,” he said. “We remain hopeful that the lawmakers would be able to decide if they would allow the electronic transmission to be used in the May 2007 polls.” Abalos cited the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Batanes as possible pilot areas for electronic transmission. Full text from Comelec website
http://comelec.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/election-automation/

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