The Commission on Elections and Smartmatic-TIM continue to make improvements on the various components of the automated election system.

Yesterday, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal presented the new ballot boxes that will be used together with the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines. Larrazabal explains that the re-design was done to protect the security features of the new ballots. The following excerpt from an abs-cbnnews.com report gives us the details.

Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal on Tuesday showed reporters the official ballot box to be used for the first nationwide automated polls. Made of durable plastic and resembles a big trash bin, it is 36 inches tall, 34 inches long, and 20 inches in width.

While the sample units had big transparent windows on both sides, the official boxes will only have much smaller, translucent windows. The windows are made of unbreakable glass.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said, "There is nothing wrong with changing the design of the box. Now, it is designed for addtional measure of security."

Jimenez explained that the ultraviolet ink in the ballots is susceptible to sunlight and could make images and letters fade. Thus, the old design where much bigger and transparent windows were used will expose the ballots more to the sunlight.

Faded ballots, he said, "will give us a problem if a recount has to be carried out later on."

Jimenez said that the change in the design of the ballot box is for additional measure of security. "What's important is that the ballots remain authentic."

Earlier, the Comelec assured that the ballots to be used in the May elections all have enough security features. The commission came out with the assurance after it was revealed that the ballot for the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will no longer have ultraviolet markings and 2-D barcodes.

Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez explains that they decided not to include those features anymore to avoid any more delays. Here's an excerpt from a gmanews.tv report.

The National Printing Office’s (NPO) ultraviolet marks and 2-D bar codes were withheld from ballots for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) because the printers had not been configured in time for printing, poll body spokesperson James Jimenez told GMANews.TV.

“They were not put in place because they were given to us rather late," he said.

Moreover, placing the NPO’s own bar codes would delay ballot printing since it would require another round of tests by SysTest Labs, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal added.

“It will delay the actual printing itself. The 2-D bar code has to be integrated…it has to be certified again," he said in a press briefing on Monday.

For clarification, the markings that were no longer included were NPO markings. The ballots will still have Comelec and Smartmatic markings, which based on the Comelec's explanation should be sufficient to ensure ballot security.The important thing here is that even without the NPO markings the ballots in question will still be read by the PCOS machines and be considered valid.

Smartmatic, however, wants to clarify that with regard to the printing of ballots Smartmatic's involvement is limited to providing the "printing infrastructure and capacity." In essence what the company is saying is that issues concerning the printing of ballots should be directed at Comelec.