PCOS machines must be error-free all the time

NO MARGIN FOR ERROR: The Commission on Elections must not take lightly the glitches experienced in the second field test of its precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines the other day.

There were transmission problems in four public schools in suburban Pateros and Taguig City. The PCOS machines reportedly failed to read four of the 10 pre-marked ballots in a school in Pateros.

It is disturbing to hear Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal say that the glitches were expected and that the field tests were successful.

Look, we will be conducting make-or-break elections, not a high school class experiment. Those expensive PCOS gadgets should work the first time and every time they are used. We expect them to operate error-free as delivered by the suppliers.

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SIM PROBLEM: The PCOS machines used in two elementary schools in Pateros and in two other schools in Taguig faltered when it was time to transmit test data.

Comelec officials explained that the problem arose when the machines used SIM (subscriber identity module) cards of telecommunications firms to transmit data to canvassing centers in Taguig City Hall and Pateros Municipal Hall.

Comelec director for Metro Manila Michael Dioneda said that after the SIMs were replaced, the machines began transmitting the data, except for the one in the Aguho elementary school.

The Aguho precinct was able to transmit only when the operators shifted to the broadband global area network, a backup satellite Internet network.

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WEAK SIGNALS: Dioneda said they first tested the PCOS machines using SIM cards of various telecommunication companies.

That detail shows that the PCOS machines may not be secure, self-contained devices shielded from extraneous hardware or software being inserted or installed into them.

Imagine a poll official on Election Day holding some SIM cards to use in trial and error fashion. How do we know if some of those cards have malicious instructions that may compromise the integrity of the election results?

It was also noted that the transmission was bedeviled by weak signals, particularly in the Maharlika school. And to think that the receiving center was just in the nearby City Hall.

These glitches popped up within 10 air kilometers of the Comelec main office in Manila. There are thousands of far-flung precincts all over our archipelago some of which have weak, sometimes zero, signals.

*      *      * –Federico D. Pascual Jr. (The Philippine Star)