Election system review firm reported to have 'tainted' record

MANILA, Philippines - A party-list group alleged yesterday that an American firm tapped by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to certify the Automated Election System (AES) in the May polls have a “tainted track record” in reviewing election systems.

Antonio Tinio, chairperson of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, said the SysTest Labs of Denver, Colorado, which has completed the source code review of the AES in May, has had its accreditation suspended by the US federal government in October 2008 due to certain deficiencies.

Tinio said the US National Institute of Standards and Technology has suspended the accreditation of SysTest Labs as one of five independent laboratories that could conduct testing and certification of electronic voting systems for US elections.

The suspension came after the US agency found SysTest Lab’s “lack of properly documented and validated test methods, testing conducted by unqualified or untrained personnel, and improper assurances to manufacturers on testing outcomes.”

“The US federal government was concerned not only that SysTest Labs did not have the technical competence to review electronic voting systems. What’s worse, it raised questions about the company’s ethics,” Tinio said.

He said the US Election Assistance Commission investigated SysTest Labs for allowing one of its clients, election voting machines manufacturer and vendor Election Systems and Software (ES&S) to unduly influence its certification procedures.

The EAC has reportedly raised concerns that SysTest had allowed and invited manufacturers to play “an inappropriate role in the development of test plans.”

The EAC noted “it is not appropriate for a manufacturer to be directly involved in creating plans for testing their own systems.”

The EAC also chided SysTest labs for making “an inappropriate promise of certification” to the manufacturer.

“In other words, the US federal government was concerned that SysTest Labs was rigging its certification process in behalf of ES&S,” said Tinio.

He noted that ES&S iVotronics touch screen electronic voting system certified by SysTest Labs has been cited in a number of electoral controversies, including statewide and local elections in Florida in 2006.

As a fallout from the suspension of its accreditation, in January 2009, another election services vendor, Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold), sued SysTest Labs in a US Federal Court for fraud, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, conversion and deception. Premier claimed that SysTest Lab’s substandard procedures wreaked havoc in its business.

Tinio, however, admitted that the US federal government subsequently reinstated the accreditation of SysTest Labs in March 2009 after the company complied with the NIST’s standards.

The “major changes” reportedly included revisions in their documentation of test methods, changes in personnel, and training in professional ethics for its staff.

The Comelec, through Resolution 8677, had awarded to SysTest Labs a P70-million contract to conduct the testing and certification, including the legally-mandated source code review, of the AES to be implemented for the first time in the country this May. – Rainier Allan Ronda