It was again, all for show by Congress, Smartmatic and its precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to test their accuracy and veracity before the House of Representatives, which many see as useless, since the tests being conducted on the machines are merely based on a poll ballot comprising a list of 10 names, when regular ballots contain much more than 10 names of candidates, with some 800 to 1,000 voters in each clustered precinct in a regular election.
The mock test also had only a few congressmen, serving in a panel, participating in the mock polls, although a  thousand mock ballots were distributed to House employees, congressmen and other volunteers to fill them up and read by the PCOS machine.
Congressmen asked Smartmatic President Cesar Garcia about the markings on ballots that would be considered by the  machines as valid votes and whether “over voting” or “under voting” were valid or not.
Garcia naturally insisted that the PCOS  machines Smartmatic provided the Comelec were 100 percent accurate.
“Over voting” was invalid, said Garcia, explaining that they had no way of knowing by which candidate the voter exceeded. “Under voting” would still be considered, he added.
Explaining the discrepancy between the manual audit on votes and the PCOS machines’ vote count, claimed that the manual
audit on votes may be due to the different interpretation of humans and the machines, which does not reply to the issue of machine count accuracy.
Akbayan party list Rep. Walden Bello asked Garcia whether  the speed in technology changes would fare with Comelec having bought the PCOS machines and is bound by Smartmatic for  10 years.
The Smartmatic claim was that it is the spare parts support that will be provided  for Comelec in a span of  10 years.
Cavite Rep. Crispin Remulla called for judges and Comelec to consider the photo image of ballots in deciding cases of alleged tampering of ballots.
Garcia replied trhat the PCOS machines were not designed to capture such images, adding that “it can be done but it requires work. We might need hardware changes.”
Remulla however said this was  useless if it will not be considered by those deciding the cases.
Garcia said he can’t  tell a judge what to do as the judge) might be wrong. “That is not part of our work,” he said.
The Comelec was urged by Remulla to to look into these cases and rule on them with speed.
 Another congressman said that to test the machines, lawmakers needed to participate in the mock elections and vote on 10 ballots each.
Meanwhile, Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said that if the Comelec is serious about minimizing if  not totally eradicating the number of disenfranchised voters, it should purchase additional PCOS machines.
Evardone said that the one of the major causes of disenfranchisement is the long queue that is brought about by the failure of the PCOS machines to accommodate all the voters who do not have the patience to wait for hours to vote.
He said that the only solution to the problem is for the Comelec to purchase additional PCOS machines.
“Comelec has P4-billion in savings that could be used to buy new PCOS machines,” Evardone told reporters during the weekly Ugnayan sa Batasan Media Forum yesterday. But Evardone said that the lack of PCOS machines forces the Comelec to cluster precincts into one PCOS machine.
“How can the PCOS machine handle 1000 voters?” Evardone asked. He estimated that the PCOS could handle only around 500 voters.
Noting his experience in Eastern Samar, Evardone said that many voters do not have the patience to wait for hours to vote. “They merely leave.”
He,however disclosed that there are conflicting statements regarding the savings of the Comelec. He said that while Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes claimed that they do not have the money to purchase more PCOS machines, Department of Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad had said that the poll body has some P4-billion in savings.