Test ballots for misaligned ovals, poll body urged By Marie A. Surbano 05/04/2010

Test ballots for misaligned ovals, poll body urged

By Marie A. Surbano 05/04/2010 With barely six days before the May 10 polls exercise, another poll watchdog has called for the testing of the 50.7 million ballots to be utilized for the coming polls to guarantee that they would be read and counted by the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines. Roberto Verzola, secretary general of Halalang Marangal, made this call as he disclosed that the ultraviolet security marks in the ballots were misaligned during the printing of the ballots. This in turn means that the ovals to be shaded by voters could also be misaligned as they have been printed using the same high-speed printing process. “The misalignment affected the UV badly so it is possible that the scanners cannot reliably read the shading,” Verzola told reporters at the Manila Hotel yesterday. Therefore, Verzola said it is possible that the PCOS machines might give inaccurate readings. “If the ovals were misaligned, even if you carefully shade the ovals, the PCOS machine would not be able to count the votes accurately,” he said.... MORE   Source:  The Daily Tribune   URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100504hed3.html

HEADLINES Erap slams Noynoy on claims of victory amid revolt threat Erap resumes upsurge, cuts Aquino lead in new poll Test ballots for misaligned ovals, poll body urged Miriam seeks ‘snap Senate poll’ Mar-Chiz row heats up There should be only one CJ, SC tells GMA