The spectre of massive electoral fraud in 2010

All seven bidders for the automated elections system that will be implemented by Comelec have been disqualified. This raises the specter that massive electoral fraud will happen in 2010, just as it happened in 2007, 2004, 2001, 1998, 1995, and 1992!

Hello Garci is coming back to haunt us and only a few people give a hoot.

Only a few Facebook friends dared to comment on my status post on the matter. My blog entry on the issue scarcely managed a couple of hits.

I am tempted to think that this is an indication that no one really cares about automated elections and no one is even willing to raise a ruckus about it.

Other top blogs haven't taken it up. Ellen Tordesillas, Chef Tonio, Citizens on Mars, Mt. Balatucan Monitor, New Philippine Revolution, and others are all focused on their respective spiels on politics and whatever else.

Better Philippines has yet to take up the issue. Perhaps he will consider doing this because it involves the first attempt to implement a system that should be designed to prevent the manipulation of electoral poll results. Surely, it won't eliminate electoral fraud completely but it will certainly stop -- even for a time -- wholesale vote manipulation.

Mar's BFF blogger and my Facebook friend Kevin Ray Chua has thankfully lent his voice to the cause of automated elections. He has posted status updates on the matter and I've commented on it several times together with Bagumbayan compatriot and Facebook buddy Noni Velasco.

Kevin didn't say much in his status update, save for saying that he doesn't want manual elections in 2010 and that he's sick and tired of it. I am hoping he'll come out with something more substantial in terms of a blog entry or possibly get Mar to rally with us next week at the Comelec -- instead of riding a bike, being Ninong to quintiplets, crying on television, and getting Jun Lozada out of jail. He'll get media mileage for a really good cause and I will personally forgive him for DELAYING THE PASSAGE OF RA 9369.

Noni, on the other hand was really fired up and I'd like to share his comments on Kevin's status updates and my own status updates:

(1)
So many innocent lives perished , public school teachers in particular due to HIRED goons, operators etc.. Our neighboring countries are automated a long time ago.. If we Filipinos will not push for automated elections , because we are afraid of hackers, then let's all throw away our laptops, PC's because cyber is BS.. including our FB accounts!

(2)
I have been a poll watcher since 1992, we all know how dirty the manual canvassing is done, from the barangay, to the municipal then to the Provincial "where the provincial treasurer is MAGICIAN" Obama was proclaimed so quickly.. The 2007 senatorial winners were proclaimed after a month!

(3)
Mano mano pag natalo maglulupasay. parang bata na agawan ng kendi . tulad nun isang matandang politiko na natalo ang anak ... hehehe aayaw ayaw pa kasi, eh nadaya na rin sya noon, di pa nadala hehehe.

(4)
Like in 2004 , A mayoralty candidate was leading in the tabulations for four days, he became confident, complacent, came sunday night the magic started, monday morning his rival took the lead, eventually was proclaimed, why because the longer the time, rigging is massive.

(5)
The Philippines should push through with the automated polls, to at least minimize election fraud and quicker results because if we remain manual, we might have a constitutional crisis especially on the president because they should be inaugurated before July 1, 2010. or else Senate President Manong Juan Ponce enrile will be the acting President

Thank you Noni, isa ka talagang Bagumbayani!!

Hacking the 2010 Automated Elections or Laying the predicate for Villar's electoral protest when he loses in 2010

I think the name of the game here is to stop Automated Elections in the Philippines, no matter what the cost is.

Then again, we may have an example of a duck that laid, not a golden egg, but a predicate for an electoral protest when his billionaire candidate loses in 2010 -- despite the surveys that say he will win.

In an Inquirer article Senator Alan Peter Cayetano said at a press conference that he has filed a resolution setting aside P100 million as an incentive to anyone who can convincingly demonstrate the weakness of the automated poll system.

Cayetano, at a press conference Friday, said that if any IT expert can establish that the system to be used in the 2010 polls is not secure from fraud and tampering, “Comelec should cancel the contract, save the P11 billion and sue for damages the contractor in the event of such successful hacking.”

He said he would rather revert to the manual counting of votes if the computerized system would lead to wholesale cheating.

The reporter did not mention if Cayetano's resolution identified the source of funding or if such funds are really available.

I think what Cayetano is really doing is laying the predicate for a electoral protest later, just as is often the case with all the elections we have been through since we had elections. This is the rotten, transactional culture that is HIS legacy and heritage -- kay Cayetano, walang nananalo at walang natatalo, kungdi may mga abugadong nagsasabi na may mandaraya at may nadaya.

I think it is short of saying that he knows that with the Automated Election System in place, his favored Billionaire Presidential candidate from Las Pinas will lose in the 2010 elections -- contrary to all the surveys that say he will win.

Another reason why he wants to find out if the Automated Election System has flaws is that he wants to find out how the automated election system can be cheated, so his billionaire buddy from Las Pinas can exploit the vulnerabilities.

But in any case, as I have said, any mere mention of money for hacking is enough to create a friendster among computer geeks.

I can see a situation where hundreds of Filipino geeks with laptops are going to claim that they can hack the Automated Election System and live-out their fantasy of being Hugh Jackman's character in Swordfish -- because many of them weren't alive when Robert Redford did Sneakers.

And right on cue, the Computer Professionals' Union (the first time I've heard of them) has surfaced to say that hacking the Automated Election System can be done.

A group of computer experts has warned that the planned automation of national and local elections in May next year will not diminish fraud and cheating and could lead to the rise of a new type of election operator capable of manipulating the results of the automated polls.

Rick Bahague, national coordinator of the Computer Professionals’ Union, said automated large scale cheating could happen with the Commission on Elections’ (COMELEC) plan for automated elections. He said poll automation could give rise to a new "Garci", referring to former Commission on Elections official Virgilio Garcillano who allegedly tampered with the elections results of the 2004 presidential elections.

"Perpetrators of cheating and fraud like Garci will be back in 2010, more manipulative and more systematic than the past elections with the help of [automated elections system] that we have to be ready to preempt their plans," Bahague said in a statement on the CPU website.

Bahague said the proposed automated election system (AES) has several technical vulnerabilities including insider threats, software engineering limitations, network vulnerabilities and lack of required auditing procedures.

In the last paragraph, Bahague's claim of knowledge about technical vulnerabilities in the Automated Election System seems like he really knows something about it. But then again, terms such as "insider threats" or "software engineering limitations" or "network vulnerabilities" are just high fallutin terms which can be attributed even to the most advanced and sophisticated computer systems.

I am sure, there are geniuses within the Computer Professional's Union that can claim to have hacked an ATM network and made away with hundreds of millions of pesos.

I've met a lot of Filipino super geeks in my life and the more respectable ones are still blowhards when it comes to hacking.

Anyway, not one sentence in the article says that the Computer Professional's Union has actually gotten their hands on the Automated Election System or has actually tried to hack the system successfully.

Just as well, Cayetano and the Computer Professional's Union are both barking at the wrong time as the ideal time to spot flaws has already passed. They should have tried spotting flaws when the Automated Elections System was tested in the ARMM elections.

The Automated Election System was already tested and passed successfully during the ARMM elections. The ARMM is among the most difficult areas in which to ensure honest, clean and accurate elections. It was an acid test for the Automated Elections System and if any so called technical vulnerabilities were present, it should have shown up during the ARMM polls and would have been exploited -- but no one was able to breach the security features of the AES.

The Computer Professional's Union, lest it be suspected of wanting or planning to sabotage the electoral process, should have volunteered to do ethical hacking when Automated Elections were being held in ARMM. For real hackers to earn their keep, they should try hacking on a real live system and not a simulation -- that would have been available during the ARMM elections.

I wonder who's funding the Computer Professional's Union? See if the bank is from Pateros or Las Pinas, you'll have your answer -- unless, of course, they got their money in cash.