VVPAT, the undying issue

The issue of the VVPAT or the voter verified paper audit trail was once again raised in the hearing conducted by the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Election System (JCOC-AES) last February 16, 2016.

Because the PCOS is not transparent – the voter does not see how the machine reads his votes, the voter does not see how his votes are recorded, the voter does not see his votes counted, and the voter does not see how the election returns are prepared – the next best thing is to implement transparency features which are prescribed in the law anyway. The Election Automation Law, Republic Act No. 8436 as amended by Republic Act No. 9369, prescribes a set of Minimum System Capabilities. The law lists fifteen (15) functional capabilities, two of which are the VVPAT and “a system of verification to find out whether or not the machine has registered his [the voter’s] choice.”