Rappler Poll automation faces 3rd Supreme Court petition Rappler VOTE-COUNTING MACHINES. A Filipino worker in a warehouse in Quezon City, east of Manila on May 4, 2010, loads precint count optical scan (PCOS) vote-counting machines into a truck to be delivered to polling precincts around Metro Manila. Photo by ... SC asked to stop Comelec dealInquirer.net SC asked to stop Comelec award of P1.72-B contract on OMR machinesManila Bulletin SC asked to stop Comelec from leasing 23000 OMR from SmartmaticGMA News The Manila Times -Manila Standard Today all 8 news articles » Continue reading... Electronic voting machines are a terrible idea. The reasons for this protest is a ridiculous one (because the company that makes the machines is not Filipino owned ) but hopefully they keep these machines from being used in the elections. The only thing automated vote counting will do is make election fraud that much easier and harder to catch.
To my mind anything that is automated can be fixed, just like One Armed Bandits ( Slot machines) JMO but....................... JP
Out here in the US State of Oregon, we do paper ballots, where they are mailed to your home address about two weeks before an election. You simply fill it out, sign a separate piece of paper that comes with it, enclose everything in the postage-paid envelope, and the mailman picks it up. If you are housebound or can't get it posted on time, you can call your precinct(sp?) and someone will stop by and pick it up on Election Day. We do have ballot casting available for walk-ins, but just a few places where you can physically show up to cast your vote. It's all paper driven as many Oregonians absolutely do not trust computerized systems. The mail-in ballot system has been in effect for at least a decade and is practically fraud-proof. I know the RP has serious mail issues, so this probably wouldn't work here. But computer systems are ripe for fraud as some states who do use them have reported major system errors - like 30,000 more votes were cast than there were registered voters in that area, computer systems having recorded a YES vote when people actually did cast a NO vote, and someone receiving an outrageous number of votes when there's not even that many people living in that entire district! Sometimes, the old "tried and true" method actually does work! V/R, nwlivewire
The ballet box is to me they Only Way. Postal votes can also be rigged. A totally non politically interested ( Hmm difficult) Person should collect these from those that can't make it, other than that back to feudal days. JMHO JP
In Oregon, we simply don't have an issue with postal voter-mail fraud. Or haven't had since we went to this voting system these past 10 years or more. It could be that our postal system is a Federal system with serious jail time (Fed prison time) and the mail carriers get paid well with Fed bennies. But I can see where this system wouldn't work in the Philippines. I think if there's that much fraud and corruption, then it would be much better to simply maintain voting integrity through the walk-in ballot box method. And do like some countries in the Middle East - after you cast your ballot and put it in the ballot box, you have to dip one of your digits in a certain color of ink so you can't go back in and try to re-vote. It also lets other people know you have voted and people walk around with a purple digit for a couple of days (or whatever color they use) as it takes awhile to get it off your skin. nwlivewire
In the UK you only get One Voting slip with YOUR number on it. you receive it in the Voting hall mins before you Vote, if it is Destroyed or misused, you lose the Vote.
Sounds like a very tight and controllable voting process. Though in the Middle East where they dip your finger in a dye, I suppose this might be in part because people can't read or write very well, so they have to use a dye system, too. Sometimes, these tried and true methods really do work better than the "new fangled" ways!
"If it ain't broke - don't fix it!" If you keep trying to fix something that isn't broken, eventually you WILL break it! I swear, sometimes I think the smarter we get, the dumber we actually become.... nwlivewire
