Linux Under The Spotlight As We Prepare For A Chaos Bound National Elections

“With less than a few days to go before the Philippines will
hold its first ever fully automated national elections, it seems
like we’re in for a really bumpy ride. Serious, embarrassing, and
idiotic technical glitches were discovered while testing the
Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines that will be used to
count votes for the polls.

“Smartmatic Corp., a Venezuelan-led multinational corporation
that handles the automated election process (from design to
deployment of equipments), blamed the problems on the machines’
flash memory cards, which they said contained the wrong
instructions. Perhaps they should change their name to
Not-so-Smartmatic or Dumbmatic.

“A total of 76,000 CF memory cards that were already deployed on
different designated areas across the country have to be recalled
and formatted. The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said that the
cards will be tested, and if fixed, will be delivered before the
May 10 elections (God help us).”

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