• 82,200 SAES-1800 machines deployed. Each provided with a battery to guarantee continuous operation for 16 hours in case of blackouts
• 1,722 canvassing and consolidation servers and printers with their own power generators
• 338,750 paper rolls for printing 30 copies of election returns per precinct
• 180,640 compact flash memory cards for secure election data storage
• Secure 23,000m² central warehousing and configuration facility
• Over 36,000 schools functioned as voting centers, surveyed with state-of-the-art equipment to determine network signals, power availability and other logistical factors
• Over 48,000 Smartmatic technicians recruited and trained to be deployed for on-site support before and during Election Day.
• 690 call center agents were in a national support center during Election Day – to monitor the entire process and provide remote support to technicians in the field
• 904 testing and configuration line employees working two shifts
• 28 multinational experts in the project management team, working alongside 327 highly-qualified Filipino employees
• 4 high-speed digital printers delivered to COMELEC and NPO for ballot printing
• Design and printing of 50 million ballots with 17 thousand different layouts
• 9,380 liters of ink used during the voting process
• Over 10 million ballots with security marks with invisible ultraviolet marks and unique barcodes
• 65% of the voting centers had constant and reliable public mobile network coverage
• 5,500 mobile satellite antennas (BGAN) and 680 VSAT deployed nationwide to transmit results in the polling and canvassing centers
• 48,000 modems and 46,000 SIM cards secured for direct transmission of election returns
• Two data centers created to backup nationwide results with redundancy capabilities
• Results consolidated in a period no later than 48 hours after the election was closed
• COMELEC had a surplus of over 5,853 machines to deal with contingencies

Audits

Field test

The field test held on 27 January addressed all aspects of the automated election system: voting, transmission, counting and consolidation/canvassing.  It proved the accuracy, security and reliability of the automated voting and counting machines.

This test proved successful. All results were electronically transmitted to the municipal, provincial, national and central consolidation centers immediately after closure of the polls, using two transmission methods: GSM/GPRS and BGAN.

The main test involved ten polling centers in urban and rural areas in metro Manila and in the provinces, five municipal canvassing centers, one district canvassing center, three provincial canvassing centers, two national canvassing centers, one central canvassing center and one broadcasting center.

There were ten optical scan machines, plus ten for contingency, 13 canvassing units (laptop and printer) and 13 backup canvassing units (laptop and printer) deployed in the field.

A second field test was held on 29 January, solely to show the media how field tests are conducted. The scope of this test was smaller (about half) than the 27 January one.

Mock election

The mock election was carried out exactly like a regular election. Voters had to check in, received a ballot, marked the ballot, scanned the ballot and deposited it in the ballot box.

The final version of the election software was used and covered actual voting, counting, transmission of precinct results, and consolidation of results from all canvassing levels. All the systems to be used on Election Day were tested and used by actual voters, actual optical scanners operators, and real CCS operators.

This event involved nine polling centers, five municipal canvassing centers, one district canvassing center, two national canvassing centers, one central canvassing center and one broadcasting center.

Equipment used included nine optical scanners, plus nine for contingency, ten canvassing units (laptop and printer) plus ten for backup. Field personnel included nine technicians for the optical scanners plus nine backup, six CCS technicians (plus six backup), and ten NSC agents.

Lab test

This audit was done to obtain systems acceptance by COMELEC. It was useful to test the system’s accuracy, reliability and integrity. The test validated the performance of the following items:

• Smartmatic’s Election Management System (EMS)
• Vote counting using the SAES-1800 optical scanners
• Smartmatic’s Real-Time Electoral Information System (REIS) for consolidation and canvassing of election results from optical scanners transmitted through public telecommunication networks

PreLAT

The PreLAT testing comprised a full, functional test of all system components, including:

• Hardware (optical scanners, modems, security keys, ballots, printers, and CCS stations)
• Software (optical scanners firmware, modem firmware and canvassing application) and the
• Telecommunications network

Each unit prepared for dispatch was started and zeroed, after which the ballot configurations for precincts were fed.

Upon completion the Election Return (ER) was printed (zero votes) and results transmitted to the same canvassing sever to be used on Election Day, using the same public network to be used on Election Day.

Once the test was complete, the units were re-zeroed (every optical scanner immediately, the CCS units only when all optical scanners of that region have completed the test), and then packed and stored for dispatch.

Source code review

Source code of the EMS, optical scanners and canvassing applications were made available for review from 10 February, 2010, in accordance with Philippines law (Republic Act 9369).

As is standard practice, Smartmatic helped the Commission set up a controlled environment ensuring all necessary safeguards for conducting the review – and made available assistance from its senior development staff.

Sealing and testing day

Testing and sealing activities were conducted 7–3 days before Election Day, when all the optical scanners units were deployed to the polling places. For the testing, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) performed the following:

• Optical scanner diagnostics
• Opened the election
• Voted using ten test ballots
• Closed the election
• Printed the ERs (Election Returns)
• Election Returns (where the number of votes per candidate is printed) were then be compared with a manual tally to be conducted by the BEIs. This activity had the following objectives:
  • Make sure that the equipment was working correctly post-deployment
  • Show that the results from an electronic count and a manual count were the same

Voting with the SAES-1800

1. Fill out your ballot. In each column fill out as many ovals as you are allowed to. This is different per contest, so make sure you read the instructions.
2. Review your ballot. Before you place your ballot into the optical scanner, double-check your votes
3. Cast your vote. Introduce the ballot in the optical scanner. It doesn’t matter if you do it upside down or bottom first
4. Closure.  At the end of the process, the voting machine will count all the votes cast and produce thirty copies of the election returns

Technology

Key benefits

• Multiple audits at every stage of the process, including source code
• Redundant storage of electoral data
• Quick and effective tallying of the manually marked and cast vote
• Advanced data recovery mechanisms
• The latest standards in digital security
• Safe transmission (direct or consolidated) to three servers: one municipal, one national, and one for the members of political parties, international observers and the press

SAES-1800

• Optical scanner unit designed to register and tally the votes marked in electoral ballots, with maximum security, exactness and auditability. It is capable of functioning amidst limited power availability
• Over 99.999% accurate
• Supports any type of mark such as circles, crosses, etc., however, COMELEC decided that the minimum shaded area of the oval should be 50% and thus the voter is recommended to completely fill it out
• 100% transparent. The optical scanner records a digital image of each ballot and adds to it a log entry clearly indicating how the system processed that specific ballot, therefore reducing the margin of error
• The scanner can read both sides of the ballot at the same time
• The ballots can be inserted in any way, optimising the voting time
• The machine operated on 220V AC power, and had a backup battery that guaranteed operational continuity in case of blackouts
• Easy maintenance

Election-360

Our solution to manage all logistical operations in real time, from resource planning, dispatch of electoral materials and incident reporting to technical support. Election-360 integrates call centres seamlessly, keeping everyone in charge connected and in control.

Real-Time Electoral Information System (REIS)

A safe tallying, monitoring and awarding system used for the reception of electoral data in a decentralized and hierarchical scheme. In the Philippines, deployment spanned 1,700 geographic locations.

Data centresConceived with a fail-safe, efficient, and secure design that allows monitoring of the platform and providing help desk services in real-time to COMELEC, the diverse political actors, the press and various observers.

Online results web system

Solution aimed at publishing the official results on the Internet in real time, to enhance the transparency and auditability of the electoral process.

Transmission platform

Securing the reliable telecommunication services for the transmission of electoral data, through the integration of resources of the main telecommunications companies in the Philippines.

About the Philippines

The Philippines is an island nation in Southeast Asia with a population of 90 million. With a territory of 300,000 km², the nation constitutes an archipelago of 7,107 islands gathered in three groups: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, which are then divided into 17 regions, 81 provinces, 131 cities and 1,497 municipalities. The city of Manila, in Luzon Island, is the capital and second largest city after Quezon City.

This group of islands was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. The Philippines are considered the only Hispanic nation in Asia, having four centuries of Spanish colonisation. Small groups of Hispanic culture are still present, and it is the only country in Southeast Asia where the main religion is Catholicism.

Demographics

The Philippines is the country with the greatest ethnic diversity in Asia. 95% of its mestizo population has Malay ascendency, and are descendants from immigrants of the Malay Peninsula who arrived long before the Christian era.

Small foreign communities are present, including North Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Latin Americans, Europeans, Arabs, Indians and Pakistanis.

Language

The official languages are Tagalog and English.

Breaking paradigms, making story

Prior to the automation of elections in the Philippines, it took several weeks to know the results of an election. This lead to allegations of fraud, social unrest, and violence when final results were finally announced.

To fix this, and as a way to promote transparency in electoral processes, in 2007 the Congress of the Philippines passed Law RA 9369, which made the automation of all subsequent local and national elections compulsory.

Complying with this mandate, the Electoral Commission selected a scanning technology for the May 2010 elections – which allowed for the quick and effective counting of votes.

This electoral event is significant for Filipinos. For the first time, results were arrived at reliably, quickly, and with legitimacy, a tall order in view of the many-faceted geographical and ethnical characteristics of the country.

The capability to readily perform audits at various levels was a key factor in this process. And the advantages of our electoral solution were proven through the many field tests performed during the months leading up to the election.