INTERNET VOTING?

Elections Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. is all agog over the demonstration Wednesday morning of Scytl (Secure Electronic Voting) a worldwide leader in the development of secure e-voting platforms (www.scytl.com).

Pablo Sarrias, who flew all the way from Barcelona to present Sctyl’s Pnyx.DRE, which is an “innovative poll-site e voting solution that turns a standard PC into a secure, accessible and reliable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting terminal.”

Of course, he said during his demonstration, the system can be adapted to the internet (using a webpage) and 2,048 bits for each key which would be used to access the voting page and would allow the local Electoral Board to confirm the identity of the voter.

If this system passed the muster of the legislature, the Comelec would no longer have to purchase equipment, just Scytl’s services which would be renewable for each election. Thus, no more bulky machines rusting away in warehouses during the three years between elections.

After all, Pnyx.DRE is a cost-effective solution that allows reusing the PCs of the voting terminals after the election for other purposes (schools, libraries, etc.).

Sarrias, his company’s Vice President for Sales and Marketing, said his firm “provides simple and secure solutions for all types of electronic voting, from elections and referenda to shareholders’ meetings and labor union elections, all with the same level of trust, security and privacy that exist in conventional elections.”

According to Sarrias, this “can be used to carry out all types of electoral processes in a secure and convenient manner with the highest usability and accessibility standards.”

“Pnyx.DRE ensures the integrity of the votes, voters’ privacy, the auditability of election results, and offers a number of verification mechanisms that enable voters to check the correct casting and recording of their votes,” Sarrias said.

Tuason was naturally excited since Section 16.11 of the Overseas Absentee Voting Law specifically states that “the Commission shall study the use of electronic mail, internet or other secured networks in the casting of votes, and submit a report thereon to the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee.”

He also said even with a proposed budget of only P238 million, they would be able to implement this on a limited or pilot basis.