PCOS of you, I’ll never get my vote counted. PCOS of you…

I was there before 8:00 a.m., afraid I might run late again. It was only at  9:30, however, that the Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) demonstration started. By that time, I already finished photocopying Vintar’s project of precincts and two packs of junk foods and soft drinks for breakfast.

Four COMELEC representatives were there. Let’s just call them Green, Pink, Red and White. Red was in-charge with the demonstration while Green who was a lot older was probably there to ensure nothing wrong happens.

Vintar’s municipal administrator was the first to get a dose of lecture from Green. Why? He had the guts to point out the possibility of large scale disenfranchisement of voters and how useless it is for us to have spent billions for such. Almost of us were nodding and agreeing with what he said, except of course with the COMELEC representatives who were too defensive for their own good.

Green went on a lecture mode, claiming that the PCOS is okay and that they’re doing everything to ensure that the people will be educated about it. And then she went on to lecture the participants about values; emphasizing that she doesn’t think any of the BEI’s present would do anything to ruin their future by allowing fraud to happen in the May 10, 2010 elections. She was a pain to listen to.

By this time, I was irritated. Beyond, actually. Since, no matter how I raised my hand so I can speak up, Green wouldn’t pay any attention and just kept on talking. And so I stood up and asked that I be allowed to speak up.

I said: “Ma’am, what you are talking about is beside the point. We are not accusing any of the BEI’s, present or not, that they would be accomplice to cheating. And speaking of cheating, it’s been proven that it is not in the poll counting where it happens, it is in the canvassing. So, now, may I ask that we proceed with the demonstration as my concern would be on the part of the transmission of the counted votes to the canvassing.”

Several clapped their hands and the man beside me told me: “Good point.” To that, I smiled.

This is the security key slot of the PCOS and they say that it is only through a security key that the PCOS will be accessed. And we'll see.

And so, Red continued the  demonstration. And when it came to the part where they were already   trying

to explain that the ballot can only be read once by the PCOS, and if in case, it would be fed more than once, it will return the ballot to the voter.   However, the PCOS seem not to agree with what the Red claimed. The ballot just kept on rolling at the bottom of the PCOS. They tried it about four times and the same thing happened.

By this, everyone was already shaking their heads. It was a failure.

There were a lot of questions but every time, they were met with scolding answers. Or with lengthy lectures that were very unnecessary. Poor BEI’s. They were not even allowed to shade any of those ballots since Green claimed they would still be used for Ilocos Sur.

Since, I was more than interested with the printing of poll count results, I took pictures. Maybe, more than enough. Red was eyeing me bad, by this time. And when Green butt in and claimed that the PCOS will not accept any other ballots except on the precincts where it was configured to be used, I was aghast. I asked what’s the guarantee that the PCOS will be reconfigured in such a way that no matter what happens, it won’t read any other ballots except on precincts where it will be used.

How did she answer? She lectured me that there was no way, cheating will happen and anyone will do that. Trying to maintain my cool, I asked her to just answer my question because just like anyone else present, I want to know everything about the PCOS.

She stammered then looked at me and passed the microphone to Red. After that, she approached me and chatted with me. All of a sudden, she was trying to be friendly. It must be because she finally saw my I.D. which was probably intimidating. Haha.

But, it must have been on that point about the memory card backup of the PCOS that Red finally had it with me.  I told her that even if a memory card is write-protected, it can still be overwritten because, you can always s

et the protection off. When I tried to ask again what’s the purpose of a backup (wanting her to explain further these technical terms especially that most of the audience doesn’t know a much about technology), she simply answered: “For backup”. Nice one. When I tried to ask again what kind of memory card they will be using for the backup, just in case, it’s something, you can just buy from any computer store, she told me that she will answer me later.

She never did until her demonstration was finished. Okay, Green did ask me if I still have any questions but, I just know, I won’t be getting the answers I want. They will simply defend the PCOS.

I just don’t think, they have so much to bunk on with, since the PCOS is a failure. There are so many vulnerabilities with it that it can disenfranchise a lot of voters which could lead to failure of elections. And that was clear for us who attended that PCOS demonstration.