#senatorial election

In line with the upcoming Senatorial election, we decided to give you a short preview of the controversial automated tool that will be used to count our vote –the Precinct Count Optical Scan machine or commonly known as PCOS machine. Background The first time that our country embarked on an electronic automated election was during the ARMM general election in 2008. This served as a dry-run for the then upcoming Presidential election which took place two years after. In the first automated election, the Commission of Election used two different machines to count votes; Smartmatic-Sahi DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) voting machine and AITI’s (AVANTE International Technology, Inc.) Optical Mark Reader. This is similar to Smartmatic’s PCOS machine which was used during the 2010 Presidential election. Smartmatic’s PCOS machine is equipped with several features that limit the possibility of tainting the integrity of the election result. Anyway, let’s just assume that we’re living in a perfect world with 0% of election-related anomalies, shall we? Additional Features Because of the magnitude and complexity of a national election, the manufacturer includes additional feature to the machine that lessens the possibility of an electoral fraud. Read more in our articles including "Guide: A crash-course on PCOS Machines" and "Best Budget Tablets for Back-to-School 2026 | Under P10,000".