On Wednesday (18/5/2022), Smartmatic, a company that manufactures vote counting machines (VCMs) for Philippine elections, and PT Delegasi Consulting held a discussion forum, or rather a promotion forum for vote counting technology. A millennial special staffer of Mr. Jokowi gave the introduction and closing remarks at the discussion. His presence raised some eyebrows. This is because he was present as the President’s special staff, but a digital trail tells us that he is also the founder of PT Delegasi Consulting.
As with any product sales pitch, of course the salesperson and broker would not tell you about the at least 1,867 faulty VCMs in the Philippine elections on May 9, 2022, the secrecy of voters’ votes that was compromised across the country due to VCMs that often rejected ballots if they were not inserted correctly. In addition, there were 940 incidents of paper jams, 606 cases of rejected ballots, 158 cases of faulty VCM scanners, 87 cases of printers failing to produce output, and 76 cases of VCMs not printing the VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) correctly (The Inquirer, 2022).
Sellers and brokers should not just make claims. As potential users, the public and the state must be observant. Buying a VCM is not a matter of hundreds of billions of dollars. Smartmatic pocketed a total of 3,119 billion pesos from the 2022 Philippine elections (Rappler, 2022). The price of one VCM machine in 2022 is 84,755.90 pesos or IDR 23,769,044 (CNN Philippines, 2021). Indonesia’s voter turnout in the 2019 election was three times that of the Philippines in 2022. Indonesia is certainly a fantastic market for anyone trying to enter the Indonesian voting technology market.
VCM performance in the 2022 Philippine election
Long lines snaked through many polling stations in parts of the Philippines, even as polling stations closed at 7pm. Voters in the 10 polling stations (Legazpi and Daraga City) that I visited waited more than four hours to be able to vote. Other observers reported that in Pasay City, Metro Manila, as well as in Cebu City, hundreds of voters waited up to 13 hours because the VCM was broken since the polling stations opened.
The queues were caused by two things. First, voters took a long time, up to 10 minutes, to blacken the circles on the ballot (like a school entrance exam). Second, various problems occurred with the VCM, such as paper jams, VCM machines died due to overheating, and VCMs rejected voters’ ballots.
The length of the counting process at the polling stations was noted, in addition to the confidentiality of voters’ votes being compromised. I have never seen an election that violated the confidentiality of voters’ votes so much. The “hassle” of inserting ballots into the VCM also added to the violation of the fundamental principle of secrecy in elections because voters could not independently insert their ballots into the VCM.
Various problems occurred at the VCM, such as paper jams, VCM machines died due to overheating, and VCMs rejected voters’ ballots.
Simultaneous elections do bring their own complexities. In the Philippines, all elections (national-local, executive-legislative) were combined on the same day. All candidates, including the party list, are on one ballot. Not surprisingly, the ballot paper, even with two sides filled in, is very long. The ballot cover folder could not cover the entire ballot.
If the same e-counting mechanism is applied in Indonesia, the story could be even more complicated. Indonesia applies a proportional representative system with electoral districts of 3-10 for the DPR and 3-12 for the DPRD. This system will certainly make the ballots longer, because when compared to the Philippines’ multi-member plurality electoral system, the size of the electoral districts is not as large as Indonesia. This means that there are more candidates for legislative elections in Indonesian elections.
Can’t just jump on the technology bandwagon
In the introductory discussion, the broker said that Smartmatic only needed three months to prepare the technology for the Indonesian context. The question is, could Indonesia adopt e-counting, let alone e-voting, in the 2024 elections?
The answer is no! First, Election Law No. 7/2017 does not provide room for e-voting and e-counting. Secondly, simplifying Indonesia’s electoral system into ballots that are compatible with e-counting or e-voting machines in an instant is outrageous. While there are no problems with the voting and counting process in Indonesia’s elections, such an expeditious process will nullify public aspirations and participation, as well as risk the integrity of the election results and the trust of all parties, amidst the ongoing polarization after the 2019 elections.
Technology does make human work easier. However, in elections, every technology must fulfill the applicable principles and principles of elections, namely direct, general, free, secret, honest and fair. In the case of the Philippine elections, the principle of secrecy was completely violated. Not to mention the number of damaged VCMs and slow voting at polling stations, which caused super-long queues with great potential to eliminate voting rights.
We also need to realize that digitalization and technology are also markets that cannot be devoid of conflicts of interest. The business interests of a group of people are not worth replacing the voting process that has been in accordance with the principles of elections. The use of voting technology only becomes a necessity if there are problems in our voting process. So far, the problem has been the process of recapitulating the results. The technology for e-recap is what is needed, not e-counting, let alone e-voting.
Nurul Amalia Salabi,
Researcher at the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem);
Representing Perludem in Anfrel’s Monitoring Mission in the 2022 Philippine Elections
This article was published on electionhouse.org on May 30, 2022 with the title “E-Counting” Philippines and Why Indonesia Doesn’t Need It”, https://electionhouse.org/post/read/101/e-counting-filipina-dan-mengapa-indonesia-tak-membutuhkannya-oleh-nurul-amalia-salabi