Firm that gave US flawed counting machines wants to automate RP polls

The American company that supplied flawed counting machines for the US elections has a pending proposal before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to automate the Philippine electoral system. Poll watchdog Halalang Marangal (Halal) reported that the US firm Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) is one of 13 corporations which responded to the Comelec's invitation to modernize the electoral system. ES&S is also the same company that is the subject of an exposé by American broadcast journalist Dan Rather. Based on the "brief description of the submissions," ES&S noted that its "machines are made in the Philippines." The machines were assembled in the Philippines through Teletech, whose Filipino workers supposedly endure "sweatshop"-like working conditions. Rather's report In his story, Rather showed that tapping on the iVotronic voting systems' touch screen sometimes credited votes to a candidate other than the voter’s real choice. Rather’s report, while noting that the machines passed the Philippines, added that some components came from Taiwan and mainland China. However, the all-important touch screen – which interviewees described as "uncalibrated" and "unreliable" – came from an American firm, The Bergquist Company in Minnesota. But to IT pioneer and Halal member Roberto "Obet" Verzola, Rather's story should serve as an urgent warning. "It affirms what we have been saying all along, that automation itself is not an automatic solution to our poll problems. Automation can create its own problems," Verzola told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. Worse, he said, contracting the services of ES&S would potentially harm the country's democratic processes and the Filipino taxpayers' pockets as well. "These are the same machines that are problematic in the US. So presumably when ES&S noted that the machines were Philippine-made, then those are the same problematic machines," Verzola said. "We may end up wasting more money than what we already did," Verzola said, referring to the botched P1.3-billion transaction of the Comelec with Mega Pacific eSolutions, Inc. (MPEI) for poll automation. Halal has submitted a proposal to modernize the polls using cellphones, but Verzola said the Comelec eventually turned it down. 'Easy' payment scheme On October 25, 2006, the Comelec sent out a Request for Information (RFI) and ES&S responded. After reviewing the firm's proposal, the Advisory Council on poll automation described ES&S as "one of the largest in the industry." It noted that ES&S services employ "OMR (optical mark reader) based voting/ counting machines" that "includes transmission facilities via modem." Finally, the summary said ES&S offers "flexible acquisition options." Filipino businessman Rather's report points to the Philippine manufacturing firm as Teletech, which is "majority owned" by a businessman named Edwin Ching. Ching was shown in one video clip at a document-signing event attended by no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Ching also has alleged majority interest in an American firm, Pivot International, that is based in Lenexa, Kansas. In 1997, ES&S forged an agreement with Pivot to produce the counting machines, the report said. Defects GMA News sought a reaction from the local assembly firm regarding the controversy, but officials refused to comment on the story. Instead, GMA News managed to track down a former quality control inspector who spoke on the condition that her face would be hidden. She said the production of the iVotronic counting machines was already under way when she joined the company. At the time, the source said she was surprised how a company making sensitive and high-tech machines would use poor quality control measures. Nicknamed "Sheryl," the interviewee said the company has stopped operations and that its future remains uncertain in the wake of the controversy. "I left the firm because it had no more contracts. Our negotiations for the next project did not push through. Until now, it still doesn't have any projects," Sheryl said in Filipino. Rather's story quotes a former factory worker as saying that Teletech would employ primitive methods to check a product’s integrity – such as shaking the machine to make sure there were no loose screws inside. An American consultant who worked at the Teletech factory in Manila said 30 to 40 percent of the touchscreens would be found defective, soon after receipt from the supplier, the Bergquist Company. - GMANews.TV