More voting machines should be audited to ensure polls' credibility

At least two poll watchdogs are asking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to increase the number of voting machines that will undergo auditing to ensure credibility of the May polls. Auditing only one Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine in each congressional district would not give enough assurance that the results of the elections are credible, the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Consortium of Electoral Reforms (CER) said. “When you do the audit, hindi pwede yung (you can’t just audit) one per congressional district," Namfrel secretary-general Eric Alvia told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. Section 24 of Republic Act 9369 requires a random manual audit to be conducted in one precinct per congressional district in each province and city. “Any difference between the automated and manual count will result in the determination of root cause and initiate a manual count for those precincts affected by the computer or procedural error," it further said. But Alvia said that at least 2.5 to 3 percent of the 82,200 PCOS units or five poll machines per congressional district should be manually audited. CER convenor Ramon Casiple, for his part, said that the five poll machines should be audited right after the results are transmitted and before the winners are proclaimed. “If there is 1:1 correspondence between the ballots and the tallies in the election returns, then there is no problem. If there is a discrepancy, then it should be explained," said Casiple, who is also a member of the poll body’s advisory council. Earlier, a group of farmers called the Alyansa Agrikultura also told Comelec chairman Jose Melo in a letter that they believe that a speedy credible random manual audit should be conducted before and not after the proclamation of the winners. “This will increase the confidence of the voters that their votes were correctly counted, as well as establish the credibility of the automated election," said the group. In addition, Alvia said an independent third party should be the one to audit the PCOS machines, and not those connected to the Comelec like the Board of Elections Inspectors (BEI). Asked who should, the Namfrel official just said “I dunno, that’s up to the Comelec." Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, for his part, said groups who have suggestions regarding their poll automation strategies should put it in writing. “Make a proposal, write a petition," he said. - GMANews.TV