SLI has completed testing of an electronic election system for the Republic of the Philippines which was successfully used to support the May 2010 elections. This project was a first of a kind international certification test program conducted by a US company.

In 2007, because of accusations of electoral fraud in electoral processes in the previous 4 decades, the Commission on Elections in the Philippines (COMELEC) initiated a nationwide program to automate the electoral process for the 2010 presidential elections.  With the support of the Congress, funding was provided for implementation of the first nationwide election conducted with optical mark reading equipment with the goal to increase transparency and credibility of the electoral process.  This program included a key provision requiring third party, independent testing by an internationally accredited voting system test authority be used to certify the system.  SLI received an RFI from COMELEC as a recommended international certification entity (ICE) by COMELEC Advisory Council (CAC).

Scope of Project:

  • Delivered the comprehensive testing and audit results required to support a timely go/no go decision for electronic elections.
  • Conducted a full certification test of a new voting system in six months as opposed to more typical US schedules that average approximately 1 year or more.
  • Verified the performance, accuracy and security of the system’s software and hardware according to applicable portions of the EAC VVSG and to the RA 9369.
  • Performed code review for 1.4 million LOC, documentation review, hardware testing, functional testing, electronic transmission/communication testing, trusted build, recommendations on field test and mock election plans.
  • Provided transparency to citizen stakeholder and political groups

Eighty-thousand scanning machines were deployed in the over 7,000 islands that comprise the Philippine archipelago using a complex transmission protocol that had never been used before. SLI’s project delivered the comprehensive results needed to support a timely go/no go decision for electronic elections. In order to accomplish this, SLI tested the performance, accuracy and security of the system. SLI executed a full audit, review, and test of all system characteristics by applying innovative test methods that covered extreme technical requirements and logistical challenges.

SLI engineers developed a load generation tool that was specifically tailored to combine actual test traffic on the system along with simulated vote data. The combined traffic modeled load and expected transmission behavior. The results of the simulated load test indicated that the system would be able to handle the projected transmittal rates and the results on election-day confirmed our findings.

The election was held on May 10, 2010 and has been hailed as one of the most orderly and successful elections ever conducted in the Philippines.

 

What we did

  • Source Code Review
  • Security and Functional Testing
  • Configuration Verification
  • Electrical and Environmental Testing

  • I want to thank you again for SLI's independent assessment of Broomfield's election procedures and subsequent development of updated election procedures. SLI's work assisted the City Council greatly in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of existing systems and helped restore confidence in these systems for future elections.

    James L. Becklenberg

    Assistant City and County Manager

  • It is with sincere gratitude and appreciation that we unconditionally recommend SLI. Our effort to obtain Meaningful Use Stage 2 Certification for our community health software platform required significant interpretation of the federal guidelines that SLI provided in plain English, on an as needed, and always timely basis. The staff is outstanding and their attitude is nothing less than grace under pressure. To keep it all together, with client after client struggling to interpret often vague federal guidelines, is laudable. The bottom line is that we had a choice, and we went with a recommendation for SLI based on a couple interviews with folks that preceded us, and it turned out to be the best possible decision.

    Milton Allione

    President

  • …the EAC finds that the policy and procedures currently in place at SLI show a dramatic, significant effort representing a company-wide commitment to the EAC Laboratory Accreditation Program and ongoing quality improvement.

    Brian Hancock

    Director, Testing and Certification Program

  • Over the past year, I sought SLI’s assistance in providing information to me on testing practices for the Uniform Voting System (UVS) that the State of Colorado is seeking. I also worked with them as they developed a report for the Colorado Voter Access and Modernized Elections Commission on an assessment of voting system technology in Colorado. The results provided by SLI were valuable and helped the state make key decisions regarding Colorado's UVS strategy. As our project moves forward, we expect to call upon SLI to test one or more proposed systems to meet Colorado Voting System Certification Standards.

    Al Davidson

    Program Manager

  • The SLI team, in my opinion, was outstanding. I truly appreciated this process and all the guidance they provided. Not only did this team well represent themselves and the expertise they possess, but also well represented the SLI organization. I would highly recommend SLI to anyone...

    Norman Joseph

    Vice President, Product Management

  • We are so gratified that our cumulative efforts have yielded the much-needed results. I must hasten to add that the work of the entire SLI team has lent so much credibility to this entire electoral process. For this alone, you have the gratitude of not just this member of the Technical Evaluation Committee, but more likely that of an entire nation.

    Tim Diaz de Rivera

    Director General, National Computing Center