Updates On Ballot Printing, PCOS Machine Testing

The Commission on Elections will be working overtime to finish the printing of ballots. This means no Holy Week vacation for everyone involved in the printing process. Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal says a total of 750,000 ballots are produced everyday. An increase in the daily output is expected as soon as the Comelec plugs in [...]

SC Upholds Poll Automation Contract; CenPeg, AESWatch Snub Source Code Review

Detractors of the ongoing effort to automate the elections in May can criticize all they want but at the end of the day there’s nothing they can do anymore at this point to stop the project. Yesterday, the Supreme Court dismissed with finality a petition to nullify the contract between Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM. Voting 13-2, [...]

More PCOS Machines delivered today as Comelec sees delays in ballot printing

This morning, some 10,400 PCOS or Automated Counting Machines will be delivered at the door step of the Commission on Elections at the Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros, Manila. This brings up the total number of voting machines delivered to 15,320.

Another 8,000 machines is due to arrive at one of Manila’s ports and around 17,000 have left the manufacturing plant in Shanghai. Added together, a total of 40,320 will have been delivered before January ends and this is about half of the total 82,000 PCOS machines that will be supplied to the Comelec for the 2010 automated polls.

Delays, Delays, Delays

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo admits to having sleepless nights these days. As the head of the agency tasked to oversee anything that has to do with the upcoming elections, Melo is a little bit concerned over the delays. Reports say Smartmatic-TIM will not be able to follow the agreed delivery schedule. Here’s an excerpt from [...]

Comelec Petitioned Anew To Release Source Code

Boy, this poll automation project is really making a lot of people nervous. Just yesterday the Center for People Empowerment in Governance or CenPEG filed a petition before the Supreme Court to compel Comelec to reveal the source codes for the counting and canvassing software to be used in the 2010 elections. CenPeg has been [...]