Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 4) — The Commission on Elections has identified what technology it wants to use for future elections as around 98,000 voting machines used in the last polls are virtually unusable.
“Ang gusto naming mangyari para sa full automation, baka sakaling mayro’ng makinang available in the market o gustong mag manufacture ng ganong klaseng makina na kombinasyon ng OMR (optical mark reader) at DRE (direct recording electronic),” Comelec Chairman George Garcia said on Thursday.
[Translation: What we want to happen with full automation is to find someone in the market who can provide or manufacture a machine that has both OMR and DRE.]
Comelec explains OMR is the system where voters would have to shade a ballot, while DRE uses a touch screen to input a vote.
“For the 2025 elections ang aming policy direction ay FASTrAC — yan po ay fully automated system with transparency audit and count,” Garcia said.
[Translation: Our policy direction for the 2025 elections is FASTrAC — fully automated system with transparency audit and count.]
Garcia added that the poll body is looking for machines that will provide both OMR and DRE technology, adding they want to use DRE for overseas voting and OMR for local voting.
He explained that the DRE option may be disabled when elections are held locally, while the OMR option would be turned off when the machine is used overseas. The DRE could be used locally for special elections or referenda as it would mean less machines used in an area.
“Ang plano natin, hindi na shini-shade ang balota. Kasi pag shini-shade, hanggang sa likod nakikita natin — nagmamark pa. Naghahanap po kami ng isang makina na kung pupuwede sa halip na shine-shade, tinatatak na lang. Kung may ganyang machine na available sa market, yan ang ia-avail,” he said.
[Translation: What we want is to avoid shading because it can leave a mark on the other side of the paper. We want a machine that will allow us to use a stamp instead. We’ll avail of that machine if it’s available.]
Garcia added that the plan is to lease the machines, with the option to purchase.
He said the machine providers will also supply the paper and writing or stamping materials to be used by voters, but the transmission function would not be given to the winning bidder.
“There will be a separate TOR (terms of reference) for transmission because the Comelec would like to make it sure that the Comelec is in full control and all the telcos that will be winning the procurement will be reporting directly to Comelec,” Garcia said.
The Comelec said the new machines should be “upgradable” for future elections.
It added that the machines should provide assistive technology to cover all voters.
