EXPOSED: Wrong PCOS count to hound 2013 polls!

EXPOSED: Wrong PCOS count to hound 2013 polls!

Unlike attention-hungry politicos who banner their faces in time for the 2013 elections, counting errors by Smartmatic's precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines cannot be seen at once. To decipher its flaws, a political candidate who loses by a close margin would need to hire an expensive team of IT-legal forensics experts. If the foreign technology supplier and the Comelec would be asked, the machine's error rate is only 0.0137% based on their erroneous computation of the machine's erroneous counting. But a closer look at the results of the “mock election” held by Smartmatic at the House of Representatives on July 24-25, 2012 would reveal that the error rate is worse – 2.78481% or close to 2.8%!

The infographic here tells us the PCOS machine's real accuracy and error rates, and explains to us why we should be worried of the 2013 elections' credibility. (Note: It is the same PCOS machines whose source code has been closely guarded by Smartmatic and Comelec and never been reviewed up close by political parties and other interested groups as required by law (See RA 9369).

This infographic is being released for public transparency and accountability – so the people particularly the country’s 50 million plus voters will know. Whether there is an intent to hide these inaccuracies, the Comelec should do something about it. The lack of any remedial measure will make the coming 2013 mid-term elections replete with uncertainties on who the winners are.

The infographic consolidates the various inputs of members of AES Watch, the broad citizens’ election watchdog of 40 other affiliated groups that includes the IT, mathematics and information experts from the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), transparentelections.org.ph, WE Watch, Solidarity Philippines among others. AES Watch never got the chance to present its own data at the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reform (CSER) of Rep. Elpidio Barzaga and only a few minutes at the Senate Select Oversight Committee on Suffrage chaired by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III who aims to probe into the counting discrepancies.

Strangely, only a few from Congress who had been elected by the May 2010 PCOS count are raising an alarm. (Sept. 19, 2012)