Chapter 4: Case Studies Related to Training of Arbiters in Election Complaints expected to produce more credible and acceptable results, and thus, lessen, if not eliminate completely, the need for election protests.13 The automated system chosen by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) involved the use of Precinct Count Optical Scanning (PCOS) machines, which scanned and recorded votes that were marked by voters in the appropriate spaces on the ballots. The results in each precinct were then electronically transmitted to a canvassing center where they were consolidated with other precinct results. The final election tallies were generated during canvass proceedings by an electronic canvassing and consolidation system (CCS). This automated process was an abrupt departure from the usual system. Prior elections used a “write-in” system of voting whereby voters wrote the names of their chosen candidates on the ballots. After the voting period,14 the votes on the ballots were then read aloud at each polling place, and manually tallied on election returns. The election returns from the different election precincts were, in turn, read and tallied on another paper document called the statement of votes (SOV) by precinct during municipal or city canvass. The votes reflected on the SOV were added up manually to determine the winning candidates. How election adjudicators conduct recounts or re-appreciation of ballots during protest proceedings in either the automated or manual system is evident from the procedures briefly outlined above. As stated, the manual election process has always bred suspicion as to the integrity of the vote count. However, the automated election also generated valid questions that ripened into election protests. For one, the vice-presidential candidate who lost in the recent election initiated a high profile election protest against the proclaimed winner.15 It is interesting to note that initial reports from the Commission on Elections and the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal show that there were more election protests initiated under the automated election than there were under the manual system. There was also a substantial number of election contests filed before the regular trial courts, although the data has yet to be completed. 14 In most cases, the voting period on Election Day is between 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. 15 Vice-Presidential candidate Manuel Roxas, the running mate of President Benigno Aquino III, filed an election protest against the proclaimed winner, Jejomar Binay, alleging essentially that the vote tallies were questionable owing to what Roxas observed as an unusually large number of “null” votes (votes that were not credited to any candidate) in areas where Binay won. 13 181