Here’s something interesting from a May 19 Inquirer.net report:

ABS-CBN reporter Lynda Jumilla said the Comelec’s education and information division (EID) used to help reporters add up the figures. However, these were still unaudited results by the Comelec and, therefore, could not be considered official.

Jumilla also covered the 1992, 1995, 1998 and 2004 elections.

She said this was the first time that she added up the results of the COCs on her own without the EID’s help.

“They used to give us the running totals at a certain hour of the day. But those were still unaudited,” she said. “This time, if we rely on the Comelec to give us totals, we’ll get them tomorrow. By then, the story would be stale.”

Jumilla said she tried to be as careful as she could by listening intently to the canvassers read out the COC results. She said she would jot these down in her notebook and the tally sheet provided by a media officer, and countercheck her figures with other reporters….

If she makes a mistake, “I’m willing to point it out in my next story,” Jumilla said.

Comelec executive director Pio Jose Joson, who also chairs the canvassing supervisory committee, admitted that the poll body was slow in releasing the official results.

The above is a long explanation of this depressing detail:

(There is a huge tally board at the gate of the Philippine International Convention Center. But it only showed the running total of COCs from the overseas voting.)

Basically, the article reveals that reporters have to do work they shouldn’t be expected to do: accounting. Anyone who’s seen video of Congress during elections in presidential years, will remember that a giant blackboard is a prominent feature of the official canvassing. You’d expect the official canvassing for the senate to feature the same handy reference for everyone, media and the public alike. But apparently not, and this only adds to the lack of trust people have in the system.

Meanwhile Philippine Commentary examines the Comelec count versus Namfrel quick counts. Promises to be a thought-provoking series.

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