How Much Does the PCOS or Automation Voting Machines Cost

 Comelec and Smartmatic –Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation agreed to a contract that cost a whopping P7.2 Billion that was signed on July 10, 2009, after a long and tedious bidding process. A joint venture between Smartmatic and TIM nailed the much-coveted bidding.  TIM have the lion’s share of the consortium 60-40, which was formalized last July 2009 by SEC.

Smartmatic is a Netherlands-based multinational company, with subsidiaries in other countries like the USA, the Netherlands, Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador and Barbados.

Smartmatic already conducted elections in Latin America, Caribbean and the US since 2004 of August.

TIM, on the other hand is a Filipino-based IT solutions provider that was erected in 1985. It has already served various government agencies such as SSS, DTI and GSIS.

Glitches in Automated Voting in the Philippines

The two field tests of automated votingconducted by the Commission on Elections was again not spared by glitches in balloting, transmission of election results. The two tests were initiated last January 27 and 29. One machine tested in Aguho Elementary School in Pateros didn’t read four out of 10 valid sample ballots when fed to the machine.

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