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 5 new printers into the system. The printers from Kodak are expected to arrive this week.

Larrazabal assures that all 50 million ballots will be printed out by April 25.

You might want to download a sample of the ballot. You can find one here at the Iba Na Ngayon! website.

As for the PCOS machines, Smartmatic-TIM reports that more that testing is underway. So far more than 78,000 machines have already passed all stress, security and laboratory tests and are ready for use.

The machines will next go through configuration, which involves the loading of precinct-specific voters' data. After that the machines will be loaded with the automation software.

All these point to one thing -- that Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM are doing everything they can to make the automation of the upcoming elections work. Sadly some groups continue to undermine their efforts. Many of them do so out of paranoia or worse, malice.

I leave you with an excerpt from the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the validity of the poll automation contract:

A final consideration.
The first step is always difficult. Hardly anything works, let alone ends up perfectly the first time around. As has often been said, if one looks hard enough, he will in all likelihood find a glitch in any new system. It is no wonder some IT specialists and practitioners have considered the PCOS as unsafe, not the most appropriate technology for Philippine elections, and “easily hackable,” even. And the worst fear expressed is that disaster is just waiting to happen, that PCOS would not work on election day.

Congress has chosen the May 2010 elections to be the maiden run for full automation. And judging from what the Court has heard and read in the course of these proceedings, the choice of PCOS by Comelec was not a spur-of-moment affair, but the product of honest-to-goodness studies, consultations with CAC, and lessons learned from the ARMM 2008 automated elections.  With the backing of Congress by way of budgetary support, the poll body has taken this historic, if not ambitious, first step. It started with the preparation of the RFP/TOR, with a list of voluminous annexes embodying in specific detail the bidding rules and expectations from the bidders. And after a hotly contested and, by most accounts, a highly transparent public bidding exercise, the joint venture of a Filipino and foreign corporation won and, after its machine hurdled the end-to-end demonstration test, was eventually awarded the contract to undertake the automation project. Not one of the losing or disqualified bidders questioned, at least not before the courts, the bona fides of the bidding procedures and the outcome of the bidding itself.

Assayed against the provisions of the Constitution, the enabling automation law, RA 8436, as amended by RA 9369, the RFP and even the Anti-Dummy Law, which petitioners invoked as an afterthought, the Court finds the project award to have complied with legal prescriptions, and the terms and conditions of the corresponding automation contract in question to be valid. No grave abuse of discretion, therefore, can be laid on the doorsteps of respondent Comelec. And surely, the winning joint venture should not be faulted for having a foreign company as partner.

The Comelec is an independent constitutional body with a distinct and pivotal role in our scheme of government. In the discharge of its awesome functions as overseer of fair elections, administrator and lead implementor of laws relative to the conduct of elections, it should not be stymied with restrictions that would perhaps be justified in the case of an organization of lesser responsibility.^[103] It should be afforded ample elbow room and enough wherewithal in devising means and initiatives that would enable it to accomplish the great objective for which it was created––to promote free, orderly, honest and peaceful elections. This is as it should be for, too often, Comelec has to make decisions under difficult conditions to address unforeseen events to preserve the integrity of the election and in the process the voice of the people.  Thus, in the past, the Court has steered away from interfering with the Comelec’s exercise of its power which, by law and by the nature of its office properly pertain to it. Absent, therefore, a clear showing of grave abuse of discretion on Comelec’s part, as here, the Court should refrain from utilizing the corrective hand ofcertiorari to review, let alone nullify, the acts of that body.   This gem, while not on all fours with, is lifted from, the Court’s holding in an old but oft-cited case:

x x x We may not agree fully with [the Comelec’s] choice of means, but unless these are clearly illegal or constitute gross abuse of discretion, this court should not interfere.  Politics is a practical matter, and political questions must be dealt with realistically––not from the standpoint of pure theory [or speculation]. x x x

x x x x

There are no ready-made formulas for solving public problems. Time and experience are necessary to evolve patterns that will serve the ends of good government. In the matter of the administration of the laws relative to the conduct of elections, x x x we must not by any excessive zeal take away from the [Comelec] the initiative which by constitutional and legal mandates properly belongs to it. Due regard to the independent character of the Commission x x x requires that the power of this court to review the acts of that body should, as a general proposition, be used sparingly, but firmly in appropriate cases.^[104] x x x

The Court, however, will not indulge in the presumption that nothing would go wrong, that a successful automation election unmarred by fraud, violence, and like irregularities would be the order of the moment on May 10, 2010.  Neither will it guarantee, as it cannot guarantee, the effectiveness of the voting machines and the integrity of the counting and consolidation software embedded in them. That task belongs at the first instance to Comelec, as part of its mandate to ensure clean and peaceful elections. This independent constitutional commission, it is true, possesses extraordinary powers and enjoys a considerable latitude in the discharge of its functions. The road, however, towards successful 2010 automation elections would certainly be rough and bumpy. The Comelec is laboring under very tight timelines. It would accordingly need the help of all advocates of orderly and honest elections, of all men and women of goodwill, to smoothen the way and assist Comelec personnel address the fears expressed about the integrity of the system. Like anyone else, the Court would like and wish automated elections to succeed, credibly.