Feasibility

Technical Feasibility

The Rotary International - Interact Club needs automation in

order to have a transparency for their election. The proposed

system called DICAVoS is capable of meeting the user’s request,

which includes the equipment costs and software team/developer.

Equipment cost includes equipment installation fee such as

computer and printer, the start-up expense like operating system

and the system maintenance such as Back-up system. The

software developers include the people who develop the system for

three months.

Operational Feasibility

DICAVoS will be operated by the administration and will be

used by the club members during their elections.

The proposed DICAVoS will help the Rotary International -

Interact Club members to facilitate a faster and more efficient

annual election. Using the said system would also help the club to

avoid fraud in the electoral process.

People Ware

The people who will use this system are the voters, the

administrator, and the District Interact Commission on Election

(DIACEL) of the association that will use the system.

Testing

The analyst prepares a test plan to determine any flow or

errors in design. The trial run uses the data and all parts of the

system ate tested to bring out the errors. After the tests runs,

parallel runs are made using live or actual data to ensure that the

inputted data is correct and to run it effectively with no errors

occurred.

Maintenance

It is necessary to eliminate errors in the working system

during its working time and to tune the system to any variable in its

working environment. Information system must always plan for

resource availability to carry out their maintenance functions by

using password and back-up files for security purposes.

Security Back-up Plans

The system provides security back-up plans that stored in

the diskettes for the safety of the system software for the records or

files that is unintentionally or accidentally lost or when it ”hanged-

up”. We are also referring to the back-up scanners for the hard-disk

and diskettes used for such viruses encountered by the computer.

User-Training

The system users are usually the first information source

investigated by the researchers. From users, it is possible to find

out the existing system activities so that the researchers knows

how to improve it and developed it into automated voting system

that is troubled-free.

The user training is important to test their skills and ability to

use the developed system. The analyst/researchers should train

the user on the different aspects of the system. User training is

important in implementing such system that let them to use it

effectively and the user duties and responsibilities are also defined

by the analyst.
Automated Election System

Something to Hope For

Every Filipino has a right to vote. An independent

constitutional body, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is

tasked to guard the sanctity of the ballot. Over the years, it has

been responsible in the conduct of Philippine elections. Aiming to

carry out its mission “to ensure the continuing development of free,

orderly, honest, peaceful and credible electoral processes”,

COMELEC decided to modernize its system.

(Antonio, Techtalk, 2009)

Preparations for Commencement of

Voting
Basic Issues

Prior to the start of voting, it is vital that voting station managers ensure that the voting
site and its staff are completely prepared and ready to open at the correct time, with all
services required available and set up to operate in the correct fashion.

Those voters who turn out early to vote are entitled to the same level of service as those
arriving later in the day. If there are still voting site preparation or staffing difficulties
being resolved in the first hours of voting, service may suffer, and the effects may last
throughout the hours of voting.

Use of Checklists
The extent of the checks to be undertaken is such that the provision of checklists to
voting station managers, on which they can note the completion of required tasks, is
essential for an efficient start to voting.

Pre-Voting Day

Wherever the security situation and the nature of the voting site allows, delivery and
checking of voting station materials and equipment supplies, installing furniture and
equipment according to approved layouts, and ensuring that the required facilities are
available and working would be undertaken the day before voting day.

This additional access to voting sites will need to be negotiated with site owners. It may
incur some additional costs:

• for voting station managers and other staff setting up the voting station,

• for site rentals(if not using premises made available under any official free use policy),
and

• for additional security, if required, between voting station set up and commencement of
voting.

However, benefits for an efficient commencement of voting would generally more than
outweigh any additional costs.

Where the voting station is not in enclosed premises pre-voting day preparation may not
be possible. In these cases voting station staff may be required to report for duty
sufficiently early to ensure that the voting station is fully ready for operations at the
required commencement time. However, the site should still be inspected on the day
before voting day to ensure that it is still in a suitable condition to allow preparation as a
voting station the following morning.

(For information on actions that may be taken pre-voting day to ensure voting station
readiness for the commencement of voting, see Ensuring Readiness.)

Arrival of Staff

Voting station staff must be required to report for duty before the voting station opening
time. For voting station managers and other senior officials, this would be at least one
hour before commencement time. Other voting station staff may also need to report for
duty at the same time, particularly if the voting station has not been fully set up on the
eve of voting day.

Cost considerations must be taken into account--not all staff may need to report for duty
an hour beforehand--but staff members must be required to be at the voting station by a
deadline that will allow them to be assigned duties and familiarise themselves with the
materials to be used, materials locations, and voting station layout and facilities. Time
should be allotted for staff to be briefed by the voting station manager, and also to allow
the voting station manager sufficient notice of staff who have failed to report for duty in
time to seek replacements by the time of commencement of voting.

Pre-Commencement Checks

Pre-commencement of voting checks by the voting station manager on the morning of

voting day need to be thorough. In broad terms, they would fall into the following
categories:

• site checks to ensure that all necessary furniture and facilities are in place and
operational, the voting station is set up correctly, security is in place, all signs and posters
are displayed as required, and any crowd control barriers or other such equipment are
correctly erected. (see Site Checks);

• staff checks to ensure that all staff are present on time, any required replacement staff
are requested, staff are allocated and given a final briefing on their duties (see Staffing
Checks);

• materials checks to ensure that the correct quantities of materials are available and have
been laid out for use (see Materials Checks);

• equipment checks to ensure that voting and communications equipment is functioning

(see Equipment Checks);

• time check to synchronise watches and clocks in the voting station to an accurate source
(such as telephone time service or by radio) to ensure that the voting station opening time
is punctual.

Any problems found that cannot be resolved on the spot should be immediately reported
by the voting station manager to the appropriate election administration office for action.

Readiness Reporting

Local and regional election administration offices should have a readiness-reporting

schedule implemented for all voting stations under their control. Contact should be
established with all voting stations prior to commencement time for assurance that all
readiness checks have been undertaken and of their readiness to open on time.

Time of Opening of Voting Station

The voting station should open for voting exactly at the legally defined and advertised
commencement time.
Where essential material has not arrived in time for opening at the designated time (e.g.,
the ballots, equipment such as ink and lights for multiple voting controls, or voters lists)
the voting station should remain closed until enough of these become available to
maintain effective voting integrity and service. (This would depend both on the nature of
the material missing and any immediate threat to security if the voting station remains
closed).

To cover situations where voting starts late at a voting station, provision in the legal
framework for authorisation to extend voting hours by a similar period, if necessary to
process all voters, would preferably be available. Contingency plans should be prepared
to cover such an eventuality.