By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
August 3, 2009

In its aim to show continued transparency on the 2010 national automated polls project, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) plans to conduct a nationwide public demonstrations of the voting machines to be used.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the commission has put in place a Public Demonstration Coordination Unit (PDCU) that will receive and coordinate requests for public demos of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines for the May 10, 2010 “fully automated elections.”

He described such set up in precincts as Comelec’s way of intensifying voter education in the country.

“We want to bring the PCOS machines closer to the people,” Jimenez said.

He said PDCUs will receive and coordinate requests for public demos of PCOS machines and will be headed by Sonia P. Tiongson, Director III of the poll body’s Education and Information Department.

Jimenez said Comelec’s partner Smartmatic-TIM consortium is currently manufacturing the PCOS machines and the commission is yet to schedule its road show demonstrations soon.

Even before Comelec began its bidding for the automated poll project, Smartmatic executives showed to local media the function of its PCOS machine which is the SAES 1800. It does the precinct level optical mark reader (OMR) system whose function, according to the company, rests on two significant points of an election – “transparency and trust.”

The SAES 1800 takes both the image of the ballot and interpretation of machine, describing this as “a complete and transparent audit trail.”

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