Manual vs. Automated Elections: What’s the Difference?

Have you registered for the upcoming local and national elections? The Collins Dictionary (2021) defines “election” as “a process in which people vote to choose a person or group of people to hold an official position.” This process may be done by hand (manual) or via a machine (automated), depending on what the governing body and the voters agree upon.

Here in the Philippines, we have been holding automated elections since 2010. Prior to this, however, the election process was done by hand. In this article, we will take a closer look into both types, so that we can gain more insights about manual and automated elections.

Manual Elections (Before 2010)

Before the 2010 elections, everything used to be done by hand. Voters would go to their respective precincts and cast their votes. They had to write the names of their chosen candidates next to the corresponding positions printed on the ballot. They could also write the candidates’ nicknames, provided that these had been approved by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC).

After the voting period, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) would count all the ballots by hand. They would then send the results (i.e. election returns) to the City or Municipal Board of Canvassers, which canvasses the votes from all precincts. The Board prepares a Statement of Votes (SOV), which lists all the votes per candidate per precinct, and a Certificate of Canvass (COC), which presents the total votes for all candidates.

Afterwards, the City or Municipal Board sends the SOV and COC to the Provincial Board of Canvassers. As soon as the entire province has been “canvassed,” the Provincial Board then sends its SOV and COC to the National Board of Canvassers, which -- as you may have guessed -- canvasses all the COCs from the entire country. The National Board tallies all the results, and eventually declares the winners for national positions.

Automated Elections (2010 Onwards)

And now, let’s take a look at the automated election process, which has been done since 2010. At the voting precinct, instead of writing a candidate’s name on the ballot, voters simply have to shade the oval next to the candidate’s name. Each voter would then “feed” his/her ballot into a machine, which automatically counts the ballot. This machine is called the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS), although nowadays it is usually referred to as the Vote Counting Machine (VCM).

After all the ballots have been “fed” into the machine, it prints the election results, which are sent electronically to the City or Municipal Board of Canvassers. From there, the results are transmitted to the Provincial Board, and then eventually to the National Board, which canvasses all the results before declaring the winners for national positions.

As you can see, the process flow is pretty much the same for both the manual and automated elections. The main differences simply lies in the method of casting and counting the votes -- one is done by hand, while the other is done by machine. Obviously, the automated process is faster and able to come up with official results much sooner than the manual process.

Some Final Thoughts

Over the years, the Philippine elections has transitioned from a manual and lengthy process into a faster, automated one. That being said, there are still problems hounding both types of elections, such as cases of cheating, transparency issues, and electoral fraud. But of course, these are topics that could be discussed in yet another article about the elections!