Internet voting to be pilot-tested in 2016 polls

MANILA, Philippines - Internet voting and the use of the direct recording electronic (DRE) system will be pilot-tested in the 2016 elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesyerday.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said they would also test the use of the biometrics apparatus for the verification of the voter’s lists during elections.

“In our resolution, we adopted in general the recommendation of the CAC (Comeled Advisory Council) to use more than one technology…We can have these improvements in the technology,” he said.

The decision to adopt the CAC recommendations is contained in Comelec Minute Resolution 14-0628 dated Aug. 29.

The DRE uses touch-screen or touch-pad technology, wherein the voters just tap the names of their candidates. This is fully automated from voting to counting and transmission of results to the canvassing centers.

Brillantes said the DRE would be pilot-tested in highly-urbanized areas such as Metro Manila, Metro Davao and Metro Cebu for easy monitoring.

Brillantes said Internet voting would be used among Filipino seafarers and in countries where overseas workers are based far from the voting centers.

“What we want is Internet voting for seafarers since they are at sea and they can easily cast their votes online. But definitely, we will look to pilot test this in some countries so we can increase the voter turnout, which has been our perennial problem,” he said.

Brillantes said the CAC also recommended the re-use of some 80,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

He said the Comelec would purchase 40,000 other machines that are also optical mark reader (OMR) in nature like the PCOS machines.

He clarified that the additional OMR machines will not necessarily come from Smartmatic International Corp., but the company can participate in the bidding.