Some DRE machines of a company bidding for 2016 elections. (UNTV News)
Manila, Philippines — The Commission on Elections Bids and Awards Committee has suspended, until further notice, the procurement of 410 Direct Recording Electronic or DRE voting machines which are supposed to be for pilot testing in the 2016 elections.
The reason for this is that COMELEC is now studying the possibility of discarding the pilot testing of the touchscreen DRE machines.
The chairman of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Election System had earlier expressed doubts on the DRE machines which are designed to put an end to the use of ballots.
COMELEC is now awaiting input from the JCOC before coming up with its final decision.
COMELEC spokesman Dir. James Jimenez said, “DRE is very attractive to a lot of people because it’s paperless. You could save a lot of paper and the preparation is easy, but it has its downside also. The disadvantage is, we will need plenty of DRE machines so the equipment outlay is big.”
Unlike the PCOS where only one machine is needed for a clustered precinct, the DRE will have to use at least 4 units for one polling center.
COMELEC is concerned that aside from the high cost it will entail, the use of DRE machines in the nationwide elections will slow down the pacing of the voting process even if a precinct has more than one DRE unit.
“Unlike the PCOS, even if you eat up a lot of time in shading the ballots when you go to the machine, it won’t last you 5 seconds feeding your ballot to the machine. Whereas in the DRE you cannot be replaced until you are done casting your vote, so the line would definitely pile up. You will be needing more machines and with more machines you will be needing a lot of things also and the warehousing of it afterwards. The cost is high,” said Jimenez.
The idea of testing the DRE this coming 2016 elections was based on the recommendation of the COMELEC advisory council for the COMELEC to explore other technologies for faster voting system.
COMELEC gave the assurance that if they will push thru with the project there will still be enough time to conduct a bidding.
The approved budget for the procurement of 410 DRE machines is 31.2 million pesos. (Victor Cosare / UNTV News)