On May 9, Philippine voters headed to 36,805 polling centers nationwide to vote for the 2016 National and Local Elections.
This election marked the third consecutive time that the Philippines automates national elections. The previous two such democratic exercises in 2010 and 2013 have already made the Philippines a world reference for best-run elections.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic joined efforts to deploy 92,509 Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) and register the vote of the Filipinos. These machines transmitted results to 1,739 canvassing centers for consolidation.
More than 46,000 field technicians and field personnel worked on the ground to provide the support needed for a smooth operation on Election Day.
Technology
Hardware
During the general elections voters marked a paper ballot and then use the SAES-1800plus to digitize their choice.
Watch this video to learn how to vote
SAES-1800plus is our optical scanner designed to count voter-marked paper ballots. With our experience of over 1.5 billion votes processed using our vote counting machines, we guarantee maximum security and transparency, while delivering timely and accurate results.
Read more about our SAES-1800plus here.
Software
EMS. Smartmatic’s Election Management System (EMS) is an application that generates all the data needed to prepare and conduct an election, from candidates’ nominations, to device configuration and ballot design.
In the Philippines, EMS helped configure all vote counting machines and the other elements of the automated platform used during the election (e.g. Consolidated Canvassing Centers).
Election-360. This application helped manage all logistic and operational processes.
Election-360 facilitates communications between operators and field personnel, offering a detailed, real-time vision of the vast number of events taking place during the deployment.
Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS). Smartmatic’s robust CCS makes automated tallying and monitoring of data received from a highly decentralized and hierarchical structure possible.
For the May 9 election, 1,739 CCS laptops were deployed across the country, along with 2 data centers for the centralization of the information and further dissemination to the political parties and other accredited bodies.
Online results. Using Smartmatic technology, election returns were securely transmitted from the VCMs to the Central Server, the City/Municipal Canvassing Server and the Transparency Server. Results were posted on the web in near real-time.
The Transparency Server provided media organizations and watchdogs with access to election data which they can publish for the general public to see.
Data Centres. As in the previous automated elections, both the Central Server used by Comelec and the Transparency server used by political parties and watchdogs to monitor the election were installed in highly-secure data centers supported by Smartmatic.
Scope
The automated Philippine elections constitute the largest vote-counting projects in the world. The 2016 General Elections encompassed:
• 55,736,801 registered voters
• 55,736,801 official ballots printed
• 44,872 candidates
• 36,805 polling centers
• 92,509 vote counting machines
• 1,739 canvassing centers
• Over 46,000 technicians and field personnel
Services
Smartmatic integrated and supplied the following technical and support services:
Ballot Printing. Smartmatic provided expert technical support to Comelec for the ballot printing operations. A total of 55,736,801 unique paper ballots were printed and verified in record time.
Warehouse Operation. Using its proprietary Warehouse Management System (WMS), Smartmatic provided Comelec with expert technical support for all warehouse activities which included configuration of all the VCMs and the CCS machines.
Training. Technicians were trained to give support to the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) in the correct operation of the voting machines and were thoroughly drilled on contingency protocols to prepare them for unexpected circumstances.
National Technical Support Centre (NTSC). The NTSC provided remote support to field personnel to solve technical or operational issues that could not be resolved without assistance. NTSC was also tasked to monitor the status of delivery and operation of all polling and canvassing entries.
Transmission Services. Smartmatic commissioned the country’s primary telecommunication companies to create a VPN which served as a highly secure and reliable platform for the transmission of electoral data.
Smartmatic delivered a highly secure and flexible transmission solution to send results using any of various modes, such as fixed phone line (DSL), modems using GPRS/EDGE/3G connectivity, and also BGAN and VSAT for satellite connections. Smartmatic provided over 6,700. Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) devices to guarantee all polling centers were able to transmit results, even those located in remote rural areas.
Data and Tech Consultancy Services. Smartmatic provided expert consultancy services to ensure a smooth set up for the election. Teams of experts evaluated the volume of data to be handled, the data centre designs and the technology deployment plans.
Project Management. Our unique project management methodology was key to ensuring the logistic and operational success in this complex elections.
We base our methods on those from the Project Management Institute (PMI) – and we have refined them based on our experience of delivering successful elections for the past decade.
Voter Education. Alongside Comelec, Smartmatic conducted, a voter education campaign to inform all stakeholders about the system, how it works and why it is 100% reliable.
This initiative included a nationwide roadshow for public demo of the machines, step-by-step tutorial videos, nationally-aired TV and radio commercials, as well as collateral materials distributed all over the country.
Audits
To promote transparency and build trust, Smartmatic and Comelec conducted a series of audits which involved the key elements of the automated election system:
Source code review. Comelec accredited eight groups, including major political parties and poll watchdogs, to examine the source code of the platform and ensure that all three components of the system — vote counting machines (VCM), election management software (EMS) and the consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) — followed the requirements of the law and work properly.
The source code review process began on October 1, 2015, and ran until the third week of April. In addition to this process, the US-based company SLI Global also certified that the source code is election-ready.
Hardware Acceptance Testing. All hardware was physically tested in the presence of Comelec to show and validate that everything worked as intended and met the required specifications.
Pre-election Logical Accuracy Test (PRE-LAT). The pre-election logical accuracy test was conducted to verify the configuration of each machine to be deployed. The test simulated an entire electoral cycle.
Final Testing and Sealing (FTS). The FTS was performed on each VCM one week before the E-Day. This test, which involved inserting ten ballots into the machine as a final check before the actual elections and the sealing of the machine so that no further handling is permitted, is performed by the Board of Election Inspectors and witnessed by political parties.
Random Manual Audit (RMA). The Random Manual Audit is a test that validates the accuracy of the count. Immediately after the elections, 1% of the machines all over the country are randomly selected to compare the electronic count vis a vis the manual count.
Get the facts
1. Speed of results
In 2016 results were published in real time right after the first vote counting machine transmitted its election data. The new President was known the same night of Election Day with 86% of votes transmitted by election night. This is an impressive feat in a country spread across more than 7,000 islands and with one of the biggest diasporas in the world.
Speed of results matters for democracy. Faster results mean less instability and greater confidence in the outcome. The progress has been extraordinary – before automation it took weeks to have even an idea of the results.
2. The economic impact of trust
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) notched its biggest 1-week gain after an elections in 10 years. Also the Philippine Peso rose 2.6 % the day after the election.
John Forbes, Senior Adviser at the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, applauded the fast results in the improved Comelec transmission system; Jose Domingo Santiago III, Head of Research at UBS Philippines, explained the peso recovered because the elections were peaceful and credible; Jonathan Ravelas, market strategist at BDO Unibank, pointed at the benefits of the automated elections and the speed of results as main reasons for the boost to the stock market and the local currency after election day.
3. Peaceful and orderly elections
The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police described the 2016 local and national elections as generally peaceful and successful.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Ricardo Marquez noted a peaceful situation prevailing nationwide and expressed his confidence that “this will be the ultimate outcome until after the entire election process is completed”.
4. Technology is inclusive
The 2016 elections had the highest turnout since 1987 – over 44 million people (81.7 %) voted.
Overseas voter turnout this election was 31.45 %, the highest after 2004, the first year that the Philippines held overseas absentee voting. Comelec stated 432,706 overseas Filipinos voted during the OAV from April 9 to May 9.
Participation rates have increased since automation was first implemented in 2010, reverting a downward trend that was hindering democracy. The confidence of the public in the result and the use of technology helped to enable people all over the country and even those living overseas to make their voices heard.
5. Transparency as a key factor in the acceptance of results
The source code running the platform used in the Philippines was audited for over seven months by political parties, authorities and election watchdogs. The source code was also certified by an independent US-based company.
During Election Day, Filipinos created one of the largest paper audit trail in the history of elections. Over 43 million voter-marked ballots and its corresponding voter receipts, and over 2 million count reports were available for auditing.
6. Audit confirms accuracy of electronic count
The count of the vote counting machines was found to coincide with the manual count 99.884 % of the time in the random manual audit conducted by National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL).
The result of the audit strongly validated the accuracy of the automated election system. The result was so impressive that a statistician working with NAMFREL praised it as “almost perfect.”
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