The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has decided to use another voting technology aside from the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in 2016, an agency official told reporters on Monday. The official, who declined to be identified for lack of authority to speak, said the commission en banc adopted the recommendation of the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) to use “multiple or mixed technologies” in the elections to accommodate more voters. “In principle, it has been decided to use mixed technologies. It is not a total adoption but we are basically following the CAC recommendation, although there will be some modifications,” the source said.
He said the PCOS machines would still be the primary automated election system (AES) but another technology will be used as a supplementary system.
“We will still use the PCOS but we will also look for a second technology that will be acquired through public bidding,” he added.
The CAC had proposed the use of either the Optical Mark Reader (OMR), the touch-screen technology called Direct Recording Electronic or Internet voting for Filipinos abroad, on top of the PCOS machines. “The basic criteria that we will ensure for the second technology is that it should be compatible with our PCOS machines,” said the Comelec insider.
Full Article: Comelec elects to use PCOS, other machines in 2016 | Inquirer News.