PCOS testing in Batangas town
Source: inquirer.net
BATANGAS CITY, Philippines—The testing of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in Ibaan town on Saturday morning failed because the Commission on Elections used old compact flash cards, causing tension in the voting area.Out of 44 CF cards for testing, 37 were found defective during the PCOS machine testing in Barangay Talaibon, Ibaan, said Josefina Jareno, the Ibaan election officer.
She said Smartmatic called her up at around 4 a.m. and said that 37 cards were set to be reconfigured.
“I sent messages to the 44 precinct chairmen and told them to refrain from testing the machines because of the defective cards,” said Jareno.
She added that, “One of the teachers to whom I had sent the message was not able to read my message early and she might not have recognized my number because I did not introduce myself.”
As press time, Jareno was on her way to Talaibon to fix the problem.
She said they were expecting the reconfigured CF cards from Smartmatic to arrive within the day.
Meanwhile, testing and sealing of the PCOS machines in Albay went generally smoothly with some “expected” glitches.
The testing of the PCOS machine in Camalig North Central School in Camalig town caused worries among observers and candidates because of its failure to read and register votes supposedly counted for Board Member Neil Montallana, a re-electionist member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Albay.
Montallana said that during the testing, volunteer voters gave him four votes during manual counting but these were not recorded by the machine.
There was no problem in the reading of the candidates' names on the front page of the ballot.
Zacarias Zaragoza, Comelec regional director said, however, that it was not a problem and the possibility was that the ink went through the paper from the shaded part of the front page to the back page, which blotted the back portion of the test ballot.
Zaragoza explained that the test ballot’s paper quality was low compared to the official ballot to be used on the day of the elections.
He said that blotting would not happen on the official ballots because the paper was thicker.
Zaragosa said the Comelec could not use the same paper quality for test ballots as that of the official ones to avoid leakage of the ballots and their being used by cheaters.
He explained that if the test ballots would be of same quality they may end up being “officially” used as ballots by cheaters.
Zaragoza said all the needed PCOS machines would be ready by May 10 and that the remaining two days for testing and sealing were enough to prepare for the historic shift from manual to computerized electoral system in the Philippines.
The same problem was also reported to the Inquirer on Friday by Tessa Lopez, regional information officer of the Bayan Bikol, for the test votes of Satur Ocampo, Liza Masa and the party-list Bayan Muna.
Zaragoza said the recalled CF cards in Bicol had already been replaced.
