Learning Objective: This is a news class. At the end of the session, the students are expected to be compare and contrast manual from automated/computerized elections.


News Proper:

There is still heated debate in the efficiency and credibility of the automated polls, a first attempt in Philippine national and local elections.

With only days to go before May 10, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic-TIM (Total Information Management) are questioned after the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines failed to recognize votes for local candidates, or if read, the votes were not right during the pretesting. The challenge for the Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM is to change the configuration of the compact flash cards in 82,000 voting machines and transport them safe and sound without compromising the day of election, Malaya reports.

The errors occurred because the built-in memory cards followed a wrong configuration which led to wrong commands. It is linked with the changing orientation of the ballot. For instance, marks were recognized for names listed in first rows written in single space but the machine missed those separated in double-space. Another explanation is the sample ballot for the mock elections is made of thin paper unlike the real ballot...

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News In depth

1. Define election. Why is it important?

2. What are the types of election you are familiar with? Share about your personal experience of an election in your country.

3. Do you think the Philippines is ready for an automated/ computerized election?
Why or why not?

4. Compare and contrast a manual election from an automated/ computerized one.