The exciting part in the up-coming 2010 election is the prospect of unscrupulous candidates starting to rely on geeks, aside from their goons, to affect the vote. Like a friend said, cheating attempts may actually give more people throughout the country more incentive to learn techie stuff like programming, network management, etc.

Of course, no one wants to see fraudulent elections. But what if Filipinos in the most remote areas of the Philippines suddenly learn computer programming? That’s a possibility, especially if candidates are willing to pay good money for results. But with all of the positive things that have been said about the automation of the election, there are still risk factors that we have to consider. Such risk factors might include:

1. Software – The software used all throughout the process, from ballot reading all the way to returns tallying, must be open for public scrutiny. It may not be proprietary and secret.
2. Devices – Ballots and computers used throughout may fail. Backup/contingency plan must exist and be robust. Sabotage could be the way cheating will be introduced, in order to force reverting to manual process.
3. Architecture – Transmittal and reporting of results could be susceptible to hacking. Instant public visibility of results as counted at source and as transmitted at receipt will mitigate threats of hacking.
4. User – Voting needs to be simple and straightforward. Many Filipinos are not computer literate, and barely literate. PEBKAC errors can lead to many spoiled ballots, which may either be invalidated like in the US, or can be used as a pretense to revert to manual.

Some may argue opening the COMELEC’s system up for review will make it easier for cheaters to find vulnerabilities they can exploit. Yet at the same time, it also allows people to find these same holes and suggest ways to plug them.

The thoughts regarding sabotage make a lot of sense. Any issues encountered with the system will give its detractors more excuses to call for its rollback, potentially making clean and fast elections harder to achieve.

Most important though is making sure voters won’t have a hard time. A relatively easy way to come up with a system that’s not impossible to use is to test it, as detailed. PEBKAC stands for “Problem Exists between Keyboard and Chair”, a term computer experts use to make fun of user errors. Yet it also represents a serious problem for anyone designing a system, especially when user errors in automated elections mean lost ballots.

Automation of elections will mean that Philippines will have an easy and fast electoral process. However, no matter how great is the assurance that no flaws will happen, we should consider the fact that as long as it has not yet proven, we should never assume that this will be safe. It is not safe from errors. Remember that if people who created machines commit errors, ho much more with the machines they created?