PCOS Memory Card Recalled!

[Monseratto]

Sadya ba o sabotage...

Glitches prompt Comelec to stop testing of poll machines


After some voting machines malfunctioned on Monday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has decided to cancel the testing and sealing of other Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines on Tuesday.

In a phone interview with GMANews.TV, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said they decided to cancel the tests at midnight on Monday after reports came in saying some of the PCOS machines being tested have malfunctioned.

A Comelec source said the memory cards from all PCOS machines, which are already pre-positioned around the country, may need to be retrieved.

On Monday, voting machines tested in Makati, Muntinlupa, Pateros, Batangas and Mindoro counted votes for those who were not even marked on the ballot, among other discrepancies. [See: Some poll machines fail to read votes accurately]

Jimenez admitted that the "glitches" experienced by the PCOS units were the primary reason for the cancellation. He noted, however, that this was a good thing because they will be able to remedy the problem on time.

"Napigilan natin (We were able to stop it)," he said. He said that about 15,000 PCOS machines were supposed to be tested on Tuesday.

But Jimenez refused to elaborate any further, saying that the Comelec will be holding a press conference later in the day.

Poll machine supplier Smartmatic spokesman Gene Gregorio told GMANews.TV in a text message that they have yet to confirm when the tests will resume.

Testing and sealing of the PCOS machines are scheduled to be conducted three to seven days before election day, ensuring that the equipment are in good working order.

The Board of Election Inspectors — composed mostly of teachers — are expected to test 10 pre-shaded ballots and see whether the PCOS unit will be able to read the votes.

Some 82,000 PCOS machines will be used in next week's polls, with about 6,000 as spares. — RSJ/HGS, GMANews.TV

[uls]

know why the country's first automated election will either be a partial failure or a total failure?

Murphy's law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong

Anything that can possibly go wrong, does

There were a number of particularly delightful incidents. There is, for example, the physicist who introduced me to one of my favorite "laws," which he described as "Murphy's law or the fourth law of thermodynamics" (actually there were only three last I heard) which states: "If anything can go wrong, it will."[4]

Murphy's law is sometimes strengthened, as Finagle's law. The comparative of Murphy's law then is: If anything can go even worse, it will go even worse. Or more comprehensive, as: "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way."

Murphy's Extended Law: If a series of events can go wrong, they will do so in the worst possible sequence.

[Chikselog]

Naisip ko lang, kung ano na kayang mangyayari kung magka-failure of elections nga.. Matutuloy kaya yung nababalitang people power? Suportado pa raw ito ni Erap sakaling magka failure..

[uls]

people power yan sigurado

first, if the elections fail, GMA will remain president

dami hindi papayag... people power yan

who can force GMA out?

the military

so military govt?

if military wants a civilian leader, who does the military chose to be the civilian leader?

--

let's say hindi total failure ang elections...

meron na-proclaim na president, pero hindi si Noynoy, people power yan

pag na-proclaim si Noynoy, will Villar accept defeat? will Erap accept defeat?

what is Villar and Erap gonna do?

how about the other losing candidates?

what are they gonna do?

will there be an orderly transfer of power?

or will they try to stop the transfer of power?

dami pwede mangyari after May 10

May 10 is just the beginning

hang on

[Chikselog]

Baka magaya tayo sa Thailand ..

By May 8 daw accdg. to James Jimenez they'll have another testing
(source: Balitanghali)

[chua_riwap]

Baka NoEl na yan ah..........

[shadow]

masyadong lang fertile ang imagination niyo...

[uls]

well, malalaman natin yan after May 10

[badsekktor]

May 6 sa lugar namin tetestingin yun mga pcos machines....

from what i heard, the machines uses an image comparison to do the counting..... sana masulit yun 11 billion php na gastos dito

[uls]

again, Murphy's law

If anything can go wrong, it will

Comelec stops delivery of PCOS machines
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakin...-PCOS-machines

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines—The Commission on Elections has stopped the delivery of PCOS machines to the provinces following some technical questions hounding the capability of these to churn out reliable poll results.

In a phone conversation, Zamboanga del Sur provincial election supervisor Ignacio Baya told the Inquirer the order to halt the PCOS deliveries was issued early Tuesday morning.

PCOS machines intended for Zamboanga del Sur, contained in 11 vans, were ready for transport from a Comelec warehouse in Ozamiz City when the order was relayed.

Baya said the Comelec’s central office in Manila could have relayed the order directly to the PCOS forwarders as the provincial office was informed of this decision through a memo they received in the morning.

The order was based on results of machine tests done in several areas of the country in which there were disparities between the results of the manual and automated counts, said Baya.

PCOS machines in Palawan declared faulty
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakin...eclared-faulty

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan, Philippines—With less than a week before the historic May 10 elections, all of the precinct count optical scan machines recently delivered to Palawan province, which is composed of many remote island municipalities, were declared defective, the provincial head of the Commission on Elections said Tuesday morning.

Urbano Arnaldo, Comelec provincial chief, told the Inquirer that the PCOS machines provided by Smartmatic-TIM failed to recognize the votes for local candidates and could only read portions of the ballots containing the names of candidates for national positions.

"(The PCOS machines) can read the national candidates, pero hindi mabasa yung local (but not of the local candidates)," Arnaldo said after tests were conducted on the machines delivered to the far-flung municipalities of Cuyo, Magsaysay and Brooke's Point.

The failure in the three test areas prompted the provincial Comelec to declare all PCOS machines in Palawan defective.

Arnaldo explained that the machines were not "configured" to recognize the names of local candidates on the ballots when these were fed into the first batch of machines delivered to the municipal precinct hubs.

He said that while there were Smartmatic technicians assigned to each municipality, even they did not know what to do with the machines when the problem cropped up.

"May technician sila assigned to each hub pero mukhang hindi nila alam ang gagawin," (There were technicians assigned to each hub but it seemed even they did not know what to do)," Arnaldo said.

He said it will be a major logistical challenge for Smartmatic to deploy additional technicians in all of Palawan's 22 municipalities, many of which are island municipalities difficult to reach from this capital.

Palawan, which has over 800 clustered voting precincts, has been assigned over 1,000 PCOS machines including reserves.

He said only six machines assigned outside of the capital had yet to be delivered, and that each individual PCOS machine needs to be "reconfigured."

Arnaldo has urged the Comelec to immediately remedy the situation, noting that Smartmatic technicians need to travel to the many far-flung island municipalities and fix the PCOS machines in time for the polls.

"Bahala na sila (Smartmatic) papano nila mapupuntahan lahat ng machines. Hindi na namin trabaho ’yun (It's up to them how they could reach all of the machines. That's no longer our work). Some are still in the municipal hubs but many have been deployed on the precinct level already," Arnaldo said.

In the farthest municipality of Kalayaan, in the disputed Spratlys area, two PCOS machines, which Arnaldo said were also presumed to be defective, cannot be brought back to Puerto Princesa for reconfiguration and need to be fixed at the location.

"Those two machines were already on Kalayaan Island ... It's up to Smartmatic how they could reach the place," Arnaldo said.

"I have received instructions to bring back the PCOS machines to the hubs," Arnaldo said, adding that they will be awaiting the arrival of Smartmatic technicians to reconfigure the machines.

Asked if the Comelec was in a position to shift to manual counting of votes in case Comelec and Smartmatic fail to make the machines work in time, Arnaldo said that a manual count was "impossible" and that a failure of elections, at least in Palawan, "is highly likely."

"We cannot do manual counting, not at this point. We cannot write the election results on banana leaves," he said.