Comelec 2025 Aes Tor

2025 National and Local Elections
AUTOMATION
PROJECT
(OMR/OpScan/DRE with EMS and CCS)
Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC)
TERMS OF REFERENCE
2025 NLE Automation Committee

8/F Palacio delGobernador
Gen. Luna St., Intramuros
Manila
2025 NLE Automation Project TOR
TITLE PAGE NO.
LIST OF ANNEXES 3
CHAPTER I – GENERAL OBJECTIVE 5
CHAPTER II – INTENT 5
CHAPTER III – PROJECT SCOPE 7
CHAPTER IV – MINIMUM TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS 7
COMPONENT 1 – SYSTEMS 7
A. Election Management Systems 7
B. Automated Counting Machine (ACM) 20
C. Consolidation and Canvassing System 33
D. Other Requirements 51
COMPONENT 2: BALLOT PRINTING SERVICES 51
COMPONENT 3: BALLOT BOXES 60
COMPONENT 4: TRAINING 61
COMPONENT 5: TECHNICAL SUPPORT 62
COMPONENT 6: OTHER REQUIREMENTS 65
A. TEC Certification through an International Certification Entity 65
B. Local Source Code Review 66
IMPLEMENTATION CALENDAR 67
BUDGET 69
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LIST OF ANNEXES
A. Requirements to the Bidders/Winning Bidder
B. Testing Requirements to the Bidders/Winning Bidder
C. Glossary of Terms
D. Related Laws (Included in the CD)
D-1. Republic Act 8436

D-4. Republic Act 9184 IRR
D-7. Bangsamoro Electoral Code
E. Election Statistics (Included in the CD)
E-1. National Summary by Region

E-2. National Summary by Province per Region
E-3. City/Municipal Reports by Province
E-4. Barangay Reports by City/Municipality
F. Districting (Included in the CD)
G. Number of Seats per Elective Position (Included in the CD)
H. Sample Report Formats (Included in the CD)
I. Financial Proposal Templates (Also included in the CD)
J. Systems Checklist (Also included in the CD)
K. Jurisdictions (Included in the CD)
K-1. List of Regions

K-2. List of Provinces
K-3. List of Cities
K-4. List of Cities and Municipalities
K-5. List of Barangays
K-6. List of Precincts (indicated in the CD as Machine Allocation by Polling and
Canvassing Centers)
K-7. List of Polling Centers (indicated in the CD as Machine Allocation by Polling
and Canvassing Centers)
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L. Sample Data Files in MySQL and CSV
M. Sample Reports and Statistics
M-1. EMS
M-2. ACM
M-3. CCS
N. Requirements of Ballots, Machines, Supplies and Materials for Each Activity
O. Procedure on Post-Qualifiaction Evaluation
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CHAPTER I. GENERAL OBJECTIVE
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) aims to automate the 12 May 2025 National
and Local Elections (NLE) to include the following processes:
1. Pre-election activities, such as:
a. Preparation of configuration data
b. Generation and printing, as applicable, of ballots
c. Preparation of Election Day (e-Day) equipment
2. e-Day processes of:
a. Voting, counting of votes and generation of precinct results and
other related reports
b. Transmission of precinct results and other related files to the
respective City/Municipal Board of Canvassers (C/MBOC),
dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s
arm servers, Central Server and other authorized destinations
c. Transmission of canvassing results and other related files to the
next level of canvassing
d. Canvassing of transmitted results
e. Proclamation of winning candidates in all levels of concerned
elective offices
3. Post-election activities, such as:
a. Post-election audit of election results, including analysis of logs
b. The backup and retrieval of all files and documents
c. The restoration of backup files
d. Generation of identified post-election reports, and
e. The submission of all other reports and other post-election
activities related to the project.
CHAPTER II. INTENT
The COMELEC shall be accepting public bids for the lease with option to purchase of an
integrated automated election system (AES), to be used in the 2025 National and Local
Elections (NLE) and other electoral exercises within the covered lease period, that shall
meet the following general requirements:
1. Provides for a single Election Management System (EMS) that efficiently and
effectively manages pre-election data for all voting, consolidation, canvassing,
and transmission configuration needs of COMELEC;
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2. Provides for 126,127 units of a secure, accurate precinct-based upgraded

paper-based1 AES, with an optional direct recording electronic (DRE2)
capabilities, with:
a. 116,127 ballot boxes and for VVPAT boxes;
b. 71,998,709 estimated number of ballots for local and overseas voters,

and for all tests, voter education and training needs;
c. Provides for a built-in secure automated precinct results system using

digital signatures and cryptography such that the same cannot be
tampered with and cannot be read outside of the AES;
d. Provides for a built-in automated and immutable3 system auditability in

each of the AES components or sub-systems to accurately trace and
verify the sequence of events in the system for each operational step for
audit purposes;
3. Provides for a consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) to be deployed to

canvassing centers:
a. 1,634 city/municipal CCS
b. 82 provincial CCS
c. 1 regional CCS
d. 1 district CCS
e. 2 National CCS (for Congress and Comelec)
4. Is designed to be easy to understand, use, operate, implement and manage;
5. Makes use of appropriate and suitable materials and supplies to ensure proper,
secure, and accurate operation of all AES components or sub-systems;
6. Sufficient number of qualified technical support personnel in all testing activities

(hardware acceptance test, laboratory test, field test, mock election), training,
election day configuration and Pre-LAT, printing and verification of ballots, FTS
and e-day technical support, second level and third level at the national
1
Paper-based refers to the paper-based election system as defined in number 7 of Section 2 of RA 8436 as amended by Section
2 of RA 9369 as “a type of automated election system that uses paper ballots, records and counts votes, tabulates,
consolidates/canvasses and transmits electronically the results of the vote count”
2
DRE refers to the direct recording electronic election system as defined in number 8 of Section 2 of RA 8436 as amended by
Section 2 of RA 9369 as “a type of automated election system that uses electronic ballots, records votes by means of a ballot
display provided with mechanical or electro-optical components that can be activated by the voter, processes data by means
of a computer program, records voting data and ballot images, and transmits voting results electronically”
3
By an “immutable” system auditability feature, we mean that the event logging capability of the AES, including
each of its sub-systems, must only be managed by the system itself. Any changes made to the concerned log file
outside of the system must be detected, recognized and identified by the AES as an intrusion to the same. Aside
from the system’s log files, all AES reports shall also be considered an integral part of the entire system’s
auditability feature.
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technical support centers, systems certification, local source code review and
data centers, who are knowledgeable on the design, election configuration,
preparation, use, operation, implementation and management of the offered
AES and its components or sub-systems; and
7. Provides for a secure precinct results file for transmitting to the canvassing
center, dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm
servers and Central Server.
8. Can be used in different elections such as National and Local Elections,

Barangay and SK Elections, Recall, Plebiscite and Special elections.
CHAPTER III. PROJECT SCOPE
This Terms of Reference (TOR) document limits the offers for precinct-based
technologies, that shall be accepted by COMELEC to Optical Mark Recognition
(OMR) or Optical Scan (OpScan) technologies, with an optional DRE capabilities.
This Project covers the provision of systems, equipment, peripherals, supplies and
materials, and services that are directly related to the herein indicated automated
elections, which the minimum technical specifications are provided hereafter.
CHAPTER IV. MINIMUM TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
COMPONENT 1 – SYSTEMS
A. Election Management System (EMS)
The EMS shall be a single unified software application which shall enable the
COMELEC to completely and fully manage all pre-election data requirements for
election configuration purposes, without the use of other software unless otherwise
specified herein.
The EMS shall comply with the following minimum requirements, which shall be
demonstrated by the bidder as compliant during the submission of its Bid, unless
specified as a customization requirement.
A.1. The following shall be checked during the post qualification:
1. The EMS shall have the following general capabilities:
1.1 The EMS shall have system administration utilities as a general capability,
which shall be used in managing user accounts, rights and privileges
assignment, including system and audit log files monitoring and backup
files generation.
1.2 The EMS shall have pre-election data management as a general

capability, which shall be used in managing all data to be used for
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election purposes, including data import of election data files from

existing database of COMELEC software applications, such as, the
Candidate Profile System (CPS), and the Voter Registration System (VRS).
1.3 The EMS shall have election configuration files management and
generation as a general capability, which shall be used in generating
the location-specific configuration files for each ACM,
Consolidation/Canvassing System (CCS), Data Centers Systems,
Transmission System and Election Results website.
1.4 The EMS shall have ballot definition management and ballot face
generation as a general capability, which shall be used in managing the
generation of the original ballot face per city/municipality/district/
post/country or ballot face per voter (serialized or unique ballot per
voter) and/or for re-generation and for re-printing of defective ballot
during printing and/or configuration file for each DRE.
1.5 The EMS shall have machine configuration management as a general

capability, which shall be used in:
1.5.1 Turning on or off certain ACM functionalities such as vote review

in the screen, printing of vote receipt, ballot security mark
detection, use of ballot paper or DRE etc, which can be done by
specific user for specific function.
1.5.2 Setting the ballot mark, number of copies of reports (Election

Returns, Initialization, Vote Receipt, Statistical, Transmission, etc),
handling of ballot (overvote, undervote, misread, rejected,
previously scanned), number of signatures required, system
timeout, voting period (for DRE), etc.
1.6 The EMS shall have election results report format management as a
general capability, which shall be used in managing all report formats to
be generated by the ACM.
2. The EMS shall be a single integrated system where all functionalities are made
available from one user interface (UI) only.
2.1 The EMS shall completely and fully provide for all election data
management requirements – from importing or encoding of data to
generation of all election configuration files, ballot faces, passwords and
all reports.
2.2 The EMS shall not make use of other additional computerized
applications or scripts that shall run from outside of it to execute these
data management functionalities.
3. The EMS shall use a database management system (DBMS) that is compatible
with the current DBMS of the COMELEC, such as Oracle, MySQL or MS SQL.
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4. The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage the following election data, which
shall include the user capability to create, retrieve/read, update, and delete
(CRUD) records, based on assigned user rights and privileges:
4.1 The EMS shall enable COMELEC assigned System Admistrator to

manage its election data, on geographical sub-divisions, such as
regions, provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays, which shall
include the user capability the user capability to create, retrieve/read,
update and delete (CRUD) records based on assigned user rights and
privileges,
4.2 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage its election data on voting
jurisdictions, such as legislative districts, provincial districts, regional
districts, councilor districts, and post/embassies (which is applicable for
participating Overseas Voting (OV) countries only), and precincts,
including such other special e-Day groupings (e.g. local absentee
voting (LAV), voting for persons deprived of liberty (PDL), seafarers, vote
anywhere in overseas voting, and the like) .
4.3 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage its election data on number
of registered voters per established precinct.
4.3.1 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage its election data on
number of registered voters per clustered precinct.
4.3.2 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage the information on the
specific established precincts in the cluster, as well as the resulting
cluster itself.
4.4 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage its election data on elective
positions and number of seats to be voted for per position.
4.5 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage its election data on
candidate information, such as full name, nickname/stage name,
elective position, gender, political party affiliation, jurisdiction where the
candidate intends to run.
4.6 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage Arabic text, which shall be
used to show the equivalent Arabic translation of the English label of
elective positions in the ballots for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region
in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) areas, including areas where
Arabic is prevalent.
4.7 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage title and date of elections as
election data.
4.8 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage data on members of the
Electoral Boards (EB), DESO, support staff and ACM Technical Support
such as, but not limited to the following:
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4.8.1 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage data on EB

members/DESO/Support Staff/ACM Technical Support’’ full
names.
4.8.2 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage data on EB members’

positions in the Board (such as EB Chairman, EB Poll Clerk, EB
Member), DESO, support staff and ACM Technical Support).

members/DESO/Support Staff/ACM Technical Support’ area of
assignment.

members/DESO/Support Staff/ACM Technical Support user
identification (ID)/name and passwords.
4.8.5 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage data on EB members/

DESO/Support Staff/ACM Technical Support digital certificates or
private/public key pairs.
4.8.6 As a customization requirement, the EMS shall enable COMELEC

to manage other EB members/DESO/Support Staff/ACM
Technical Support data that shall be needed in the configuration
of ballots and ACM.
4.9 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to modify changes applicable to specific
jurisdictions (e.g. for a specific city/municipality, province, or region only)
without the need to re-do all unaffected configurations.
4.9.1 All modifications to other related sub-components that shall need to

be adjusted as a result of the modification shall be automatically
reflected by the EMS, with the corresponding logs recorded in the
appropriate audit logs.
5. The EMS shall be able to accept Certificates externally generated by an

authorized certificate authority (CA) (such as the Department of Information
and Communications Technology (DICT) for EB and Boards of Canvassers
(BOC) Members and for each machine for digitally signing election results and
other related files.
6. The EMS shall be also capable of managing pre-election configuration data

by direct entry.
7. The EMS shall provide a functionality for the creation and management of
report templates for use in the reports to be generated by the:
7.1 ACM/DRE, such as the Initialization Report, the Election Returns (ER), the
ACM/DRE Statistical Report, the Electronic Transmission Report and the
ACM/DRE Audit Log Report
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7.2 CCS such as Initialization Report, Statement of Votes, Canvassing Report,

Monitoring Report, Certificate of Canvass, Certificate of Canvasss and
Proclamation, Audit Log, Post Election Report, Statistical Report,
transmission report, etc.
8. The EMS shall be able to generate the election configuration files needed to
configure the VCM.
8.1 The EMS shall be able to automatically generate location-specific

configuration files, which shall be able to restrict the votes that can be
accepted and the results that can be generated by each machine,
depending on the configured number of registered voters and location.
8.2 The EMS-generated configuration files shall include the date and title of
the elections, the precinct of assignment, together with information on
its corresponding region, province, city/municipality or post/embassy,
barangay, and voting center, candidate information, including digital
certificates.
8.3 The created configurations of EMS shall be encrypted with a minimum

encryption of AES 256.
9. The EMS shall be able to import COMELEC’s pre-election data without

manually dividing the files into parts.
10. The EMS shall provide a functionality for COMELEC to manage its pre-
election data from scratch and for review/edit purposes.
11. The EMS shall have a ballot definition module which shall have the following
minimum functionalities:
11.1 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to be flexible in its design of the ballots
using the available space on the minimum ballot size (e.g. more than
one row or more than one column or a combination), which shall be
applicable for all of the ballot or to specific contests on the ballot design
only.
11.2 The EMS shall enable the names of the candidates to be printed on the
ballot / be displayed in the screen.
11.2.1 For DRE, the EMS shall allow to generate digital or on-screen ballots
that shall enable the names of the candidates to be displayed on
the screen.
11.3 The EMS shall enable the automatic generation of paper ballots that
utilizes both sides of the ballot sheet/ display on the screen.
11.3.1 For paper-based ballot, the system shall allow user to arrange
Position and candidates in front or back side of the ballot.
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11.4 The EMS shall enable each side of the automatically generated ballot
sheet to be able to accommodate at least 350 candidate names,
including the positions, with a minimum readable Arial font type and font
size of 10 or a sans serif font size of 3.53 mm at the minimum, in addition
to other mandatory information required by law.
11.4.1 The EMS shall enable the COMELEC to design multi-sheet ballots
for use on e-Day.
11.4.2 For all or any areas, the EMS shall be able to generate two (2) sets
of ballots per voter e.g. for BARMM area, one ballot for National
and Local positions and the other one for BARMM positions, which
may be configured in the EMS and for BSKE one ballot for Barangay
and one ballot for SK positions.
11.5 The EMS’s ballot definition module shall be able to automatically create
the ballot faces with a common set of candidates from the national level
down to the district/ city/municipal level or councilor district level, or
barangay in case of BSKE.
11.5.1 As a customization requirement, each ballot face shall include

Ballot Verification Report that shall show the names of candidates
with the corresponding row and column positions (space to mark)
on the ballot.
11.6 The EMS’s ballot definition module shall be able to assign a unique ballot
ID for each ballot face.
11.6.1 The EMS shall enable the automatic generation of paper ballots/
screen display per voter, based on the number of registered
voters per clustered precinct.
11.6.1.1 The EMS shall allow generation of FTS ballots for all
clustered precinct of at least 10 ballots per clustered
precinct with different serial number from the actual
ballot.
11.6.1.2 For DRE, the EMS shall allow pre-voting of 10 voters per
clustered precinct before the actual voting is activated.
The screen of the FTS shall display Final Testing and
Sealing.
11.6.1.3 The EMS shall allow printing of watermarks in the testing

ballots which shall not be readable by the machine.
11.6.2 The EMS shall allow re-generation of a unique ballot per voter for
re-printing of defective ballot during printing. This re-generated
unique ballot shall bear a different serial number from the
generated ballot face. Defective ballots, for all its intent and
purpose, shall no longer be readable by the ACM.
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11.7 The EMS’s ballot definition module shall enable its user to preview the
automatically generated ballot faces for verification purposes.
11.8 The EMS shall be customized to be able to accommodate the final ballot
design and layout as to final specifications of the COMELEC.
11.9 The EMS’s ballot definition module shall be able to accommodate the
insertion or provision of Arabic translation of the titles of the offices to be
voted for, in addition to and immediately below the English titles.
11.10 The EMS shall create as many ballot faces as there are post/country,
district/cities/municipalities and councilor districts, or barangay in case
of BSKE based on the data imported.
11.11 The EMS shall be capable of generating the ballot with machine-
readable information that shall identify the ballot jurisdiction codes and
its ballot code. Ballot faces shall include codes such as QR code and
other related codes.
11.12 The EMS shall be capable of designating a physical space in the ballot
for additional visual security markings as specified by the COMELEC, the
National Printing Office (NPO), or the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP),
and which may not be machine-detectable.
11.13 The EMS shall ensure that the presence of these visual security markings
shall not deter the system’s capability for accurate counting of votes
on the ballots.
11.14 The EMS shall be able to export the ballot face to PDF format and to
any format needed by the ballot printing system.
11.15 The EMS shall be able to export the on-screen digital ballot face to files
such as PDF, word, excel, etc.
12. The EMS shall be able to handle at least 30 characters of candidate names
with party affiliation, and display them on the ballot accordingly in a readable
manner.
13. The EMS shall be capable of maintaining an immutable audit log (i.e. if log is
opened and edited outside the system, the system will not work anymore)
which shall contain the following information:
13.1 The EMS shall log all user activities in the system, together with the date-
and-time stamp for each.
13.2 The EMS audit log shall contain information on the unique EMS machine
ID from which the logged EMS activity was executed or where the
logged event happened.
13.3 The EMS audit log shall contain information on the unique user ID for each
EMS user.
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13.4 The EMS audit log shall contain information on the specific type of event
such as whether system-generated, user activity, and error occurrence.
13.5 The EMS audit log shall contain information on the specific EMS user
action or activity, including date and time of sign in and sign out, and
specific access and action done on EMS records.
13.6 The EMS audit log shall contain information on the specific error
messages for errors encountered by the system, including system and
user errors.
13.7 The EMS shall write its log entries in such a way that they can be easily
understood by its regular users and shall not make use of coded
language, without readily providing the equivalent meaning.
13.8 The EMS shall enable its user to select a period of date/time to display
the concerned contents of the log files.
14. The EMS shall comply with the ISMS control objectives related to user access,
audit logs, device identity, system identifier, back up, network addresses and
protocols, etc.
15. The EMS shall have a built-in system functionality to allow back-up of all data
in the EMS server.
15.1 The EMS shall generate the back-up file in a data format that can readily
be re-used by the system for data recovery purposes.
15.2 The EMS shall be able to restore the back-up file without its user having
to manually regenerate any of the needed files to continue working on
the EMS.
16. The EMS shall allow the export of its databases or data tables containing the
information of these reports in the required COMELEC data file format such as
MySQL or CSV.
17. The EMS shall have a built-in functionality to generate and display the hash
code for the system using at least SHA 256 or better cryptographic hash
function.
17.1 The EMS shall display the generated hash code in the system.
17.2 The EMS shall be able to print this hash code on all reports to be
generated by the system.
18. All indicated EMS system functionalities shall be made available for access
from EMS workstations or authorized clients connected to the server.
A.2. The following shall be delivered during customization phase or as indicated in

the calendar:
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19. The EMS shall be required to comply with the following minimum customizable
functionalities to be tested and verified during the scheduled systems
customization period, laboratory test and field test as indicated in the 2025
NLE Implementation Calendar, or before the systems acceptance:
19.1 The EMS shall only allow modification of data that have been encoded
into the system.
19.2 The EMS shall employ at least three (3) levels of user access, which shall
be categorized at the very least, as follows:
19.2.1 The EMS shall employ a regular user level, which shall be assigned
with basic computer operational roles, such as generation of
approved configuration files, ballot faces, ACM usernames and
passwords, and viewing of EMS data, or as may be assigned or
revoked by designated EMS Administrators.
19.2.2 The EMS shall employ an intermediate user level, which shall be
assigned with regular user roles, correction of imported data, and
approval of configuration files, or as may be assigned or revoked
by designated EMS Administrators.
19.2.3 The EMS shall employ an administrator user level, which shall be
assigned with all regular and intermediate user roles, and
reference file management roles, including data import, creation
of new records, update or edit records, together with monitoring
roles, and assigning or revoking of user rights and privileges.
19.3 The EMS shall be able to generate and print the following reports as of
date/time of report generation.
19.3.1 The EMS shall be able to generate multi-level (i.e. national,

regional, provincial, and city/municipal) statistical reports on
generated (and not yet generated) ballot faces per date, with
summary and detailed listing, based on the final formats to be
approved by COMELEC.

regional, provincial, and city/municipal and barangay) statistical
reports on generated (and not yet generated) machine
configuration files per date for all machines, with summary and
detailed listing, based on the final formats to be approved by
COMELEC.

regional, provincial, and city/municipal) statistical reports on
generated (and not yet generated) machine usernames and/or
passwords, with summary and detailed listing, based on the final
formats to be approved by COMELEC.
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19.3.4 The EMS shall be able to generate multi-level lists of voting

jurisdictions, with summary and detailed statistical reports, based
on the final formats to be approved by COMELEC.
19.3.5 The EMS shall be able to generate multi-level lists of elective

positions per voting jurisdiction, with summary and detailed
statistical reports, based on the final formats to be approved by
COMELEC.
19.3.6 The EMS shall be able to generate multi-level lists of candidates

per position per voting jurisdiction, with summary and detailed
statistical reports, based on the final formats to be approved by
COMELEC.
19.3.7 The EMS shall allow export of generated reports in word and/or
excel format.
19.3.8 The EMS shall be able to keep track of the number of times a
specific precinct configuration file has been programmed in a
memory card or other storage media.
19.3.8.1 This information shall be programmatically recorded as

an identifier in the memory configuration card to
indicate which nth number of time is this specific
burning/programming. (For example, 1st burn, 2nd burn,
etc.)
19.3.9 This identifier shall be recognized by the ACM upon each system
boot-up and recorded in its audit log.
19.4 The EMS shall be easy to use and operate, and shall make use of a
Graphical User Interface (GUI).
19.4.1 The EMS shall have such features as understandable and helpful
screen prompts, descriptive error messages with corresponding
needed corrective actions, and help screens.
19.4.1.1 The EMS on-screen messages and instructions shall be

subject to approval and modification by COMELEC in
view of the ease-of-use requirement.
19.4.2 The EMS shall have a built-in user or operation manual, which shall
be accessible from a Help menu, and which shall provide the
needed instructions on how to use and operate the system.
19.4.2.1 The contents of the EMS built-in user or operation

manual, and its wordings, shall be subject to approval
and modification by the COMELEC.
19.4.3 The EMS shall be easy to use in such a way that by just following
the instructions in its built-in User Manual, a user shall be able to
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successfully create all configurations, including the ballot faces,

and without manual intervention from outside the system.
19.4.3.1 For this purpose, the EMS built-in User Manual shall
contain complete, accurate and understandable
information and instructions on ballot configuration,
machine configuration, data import, error
management, systems administration.
19.4.3.2 The EMS built-in user manual shall be designed and

created on a per user level so as not to expose the
functions related to those with higher user level.
19.5 The EMS shall provide functionality for the management of the ACM
report templates, which shall include, among others, the modification of
the title of report, and the following report management functionalities.
19.5.1 The EMS shall also allow the editing of entries or contents in said
report templates.
19.5.1.1 The EMS shall specifically allow the editing of elective

positions to be included in or excluded from the report
templates.
19.5.1.2 The EMS shall specifically allow the editing of the wording
of the certification in the report templates, together with
other textual information.
19.5.1.3 The EMS shall specifically allow the editing of the report
format design, such as the placement or positioning of
information, in the report template.
19.5.1.4 The EMS shall specifically allow the editing of the data
fields for inclusion or exclusion in the report templates.
19.5.1.5 The EMS shall also allow the editing of other information
in the report templates, as may be indicated in the
Systems Customization phase.
19.6 The EMS shall be able to generate and display imported data and set
configurations, together with a summary of the results, for verification
purposes.
19.6.1 The EMS shall provide different options for filtering display or views
of the imported data and set configurations to facilitate
verification, such as, but not limited to the following:
19.6.1.1 Based on the imported data, the EMS shall provide multi-
level (i.e. national, regional, provincial, city/municipal)
lists (with statistical reports) of geographical divisions,
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with the underlying subdivisions, and the number of

registered voters.
lists (with statistical reports) of voting jurisdictions, with the
number of registered voters.
lists (with statistical reports) of elective positions and
number of seats to vote for each position, together with
other positions that may be added before the elections.
level (i.e. national, regional, provincial, city/municipal,
district) lists (with statistical reports) of candidates per
voting jurisdiction and for other geographic subdivisions
that may be added before the elections.
district) lists (with statistical reports) of established
precincts, with number of registered voters.
district) lists (with statistical reports) of clustered
precincts, with number of registered voters.
and district) lists (with statistical reports) of clustered
precincts, with established precincts included in the
cluster, together with number of registered voters.
19.6.1.8 Based on the imported data, the EMS shall provide

monitoring report for ACM and CCS configuration.
19.7 The EMS shall enable the process of importing COMELEC’s pre-election.
19.8 The ballot shall contain an applicable security code with information that
helps in ensuring its authenticity, including but not limited to Election
Identification, Precinct Identification, Serial Number, Digital Signature.
19.8.1 The EMS shall provide the process of the authenticity of an

applicable security code.
19.9 The EMS shall allow COMELEC to generate the individual ballot in multiple
workstations simultaneously, without the need of intervention from the
provider’s technical staff.
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19.10 The EMS shall comply with the ISMS control objectives related to
change management such as protection of logs against unauthorized
changes.
19.11 System should be capable of real-time copying of log files outside of

the control of a system administrator or operator. Copied logs should
be protected against tampering using the AES 256 encryption.
20. The EMS shall be capable of importing pre-election configuration data from
MySQL and CSV (or character4-separated values) data files from existing
COMELEC applications (such as the CPS and VRS) for information on
candidates, voting jurisdictions, geographical subdivisions, images and audio,
among others, as part of its data management capabilities. For purposes of
post-qualification, the COMELEC shall provide sample data.
20.1 Other system data for import requirement such as ballot design
template, report template, audio, images, usernames and passwords
including security keys for electoral board and canvassers, marking of
automated or manual tally, and all other codes that the system require.
20.1.1 The format or template of system data for readily input to the EMS
shall be submitted during the post-evaluation.
20.2 The EMS shall have an automatic built-in functionality to ensure and verify
that the ballot and machine configurations are always matched.
20.2.1 The EMS shall ensure that any changes to a specific ballot
configuration shall automatically regenerate the machine
configuration with the ballot face, and vice-versa, with
informational prompt to the user.
20.3 The EMS shall be able to generate a checklist for visual monitoring of the
status of generation of ballot faces, and of machine configuration files,
as of report generation.
20.3.1 The EMS shall include in the checklist the number of times that a
specific machine configuration file has been generated or
burned/programmed into a memory/data storage card device.
20.4 The EMS shall be able to generate labels:
20.4.1 Per clustered precinct for each storage device, ACM box, EB
security keys
20.4.2 CCS for each security keys, box and storage device.
4
The character separating the values may be a comma or a pipe symbol, or any other such character as may be
used by the COMELEC in its databases.
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20.5 The EMS shall contain only functionalities applicable to the Philippine
elections.
20.6 The EMS shall have a built-in functionality for verification and validation
of the integrity and accuracy of data before allowing data import such
as, all positions are with candidate, all cities/municipalities/post/
countries have clustered precinct, and other verification that the system
should make to prevent error in the system.
20.7 The EMS shall have a reporting functionality to display the generated
results of the data verification and validation after data import which
shall include such information as summary and breakdown of related
statistical information.
B. AUTOMATED COUNTING MACHINE (ACM)
The ACM shall comply with the following minimum requirements which shall be
demonstrated by the bidder as compliant during the submission of its Bid, unless
specified as a customization requirement.
I. Requirements for both Paper-Based and DRE capability
1. The ACM shall use Optical Mark Reader (OMR) or Optical Scan (OpScan)
technology with an optional Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) capability.
1.1 The winning bidder shall be able to provide the DRE capabilities without
additional cost, upon actual need and demand, by the Commission.
1.2 The DRE capabilities shall be used in the overseas voting for:
1.2.1 Vote Anywhere; and
1.2.2 Seafarers
To be allocated at 1,000 voters per machine.
2. The ACM shall have a minimum CPU specification of a Dual Core 1.1 GHz or
its equivalent and RAM memory of 4GB or higher.
3. The OMR/OpScan shall provide the voter a system of verification (display in

the screen and voter receipt) to find out whether or not the machine has
registered his choice:
3.1 The voter receipt file shall be in PDF format and shall also be saved in
the storage device.
3.2 This voter receipt file shall be included in the transmission to the Central
server.
3.3 The ACM screen shall be at least 12 inches diagonal in size, active screen
and minimum screen resolution of at least 1920 x 1080 and adjustable
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from zero (0) to ninety (90) degrees accessible to voters with special
needs, and shall have a privacy screen feature.
3.4 The ACM shall have an external output to connect an external display
device to increase transparency of the election.
4. The ACM shall be capable of providing information to the voter through audio
such as instructions to the voter, positions and candidates voted, overvote or
undervote, etc.
5. The ACM shall have a printing capability, which shall be built-in into the system
with a printer compartment capable to accept paper roll with a minimum
width of three (3) inches and length of fifty (50) meters with auto cutter.
6. The ACM’s hardware shall have electronic transmission capability, conforming

with the ISMS control objectives on communications security, and which shall
enable the electronic transmission of election results to EMS-configured
destinations (such as to the designated CCS units and central server,
dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm servers
and backup server) via wired or wireless technologies.
6.1 The ACM shall be capable of using GSM, GPRS, Ethernet, VSAT and other
existing transmission technologies.
7. The ACM’s hardware shall be able to make use of alternative power sources,
such as internal or external batteries, or power generators, which shall enable
the ACM to fully operate for at least 14 hours. In case external batteries are
used, the ACM’s hardware when connected to an AC power source shall be
capable of charging the battery.
7.1 The ACM shall enable the seamless transfer of power supply from the
main source to alternative power.
8. The ACM shall have a built-in functionality to accept encrypted election

configuration data from the EMS, such as voting jurisdiction data and
candidate information, digital certificates, and other needed configuration
data.
8.1 The ACM shall make use of e-Day-specific information such as title/date
of election, positions, candidates information, voting jurisdictions, that
shall NOT be hardcoded into the system, but shall be referred to from
external reference files or configuration files from the EMS.
8.2 The ACM functionality for machine configuration shall conform with ISMS
control objectives on user access authentication.
9. The ACM shall be configurable for use at the precinct level.
9.1 The configuration file’s information shall include the date and title of the
elections and the precinct for which the ACM was configured, together
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with information on its corresponding region, province, city/municipality

or post/embassy, barangay, and voting center.
10. The ACM shall be accessible to voters with special needs in the verification of
votes. Any suitable technology as per manufacturer’s specification shall be
provided to meet the requirement.
11. The ACM shall protect the sanctity and secrecy of the voter’s vote by ensuring
that the record of the vote shall not be traced to the voter.
11.1 This functionality of the ACM shall be demonstrated during the Systems
Evaluation.
12. The ACM shall employ error handling procedures, including error recovery
features, the use of error prompts and other related instructions to recover
from an error.
12.1 As a customization requirement:
12.1.1 The OMR/OpScan shall be able to handle the errors listed in the
Error Handling Test scenarios, which is specified in the Other
Requirements section of this TOR.
13. The ACM shall employ sufficient security measures with regard to system
access.
13.1 As a security access requirement, the ACM shall make use of unique user
name/ID and password for each member of the EB as a ACM user, which
shall identify the concerned EB Member and shall likewise be recorded
in all audit log entries.
13.1.1 As a customization requirement, the EB’s name and technical

support personnel be inputted in the machine (EB registration)
during FTS or before the start of opening of polls.
13.2 As a security access requirement, the ACM shall make use of physical
security devices, using smartcards or USB Token with digital certificates
for each EB Member.
14. The ACM shall allow generation of Voter Receipt which shall contain:
14.1 Voting Jurisdiction (Province/city/municipality/post/country/barangay/

clustered precincts/precincts in a cluster)
14.2 Name and date of Elections
14.3 Position
14.4 Candidates’ name voted per position (with notation UNDERVOTE for
seats not voted or OVERVOTE if the position is overvoted)
14.5 Ballot serial number

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14.6 Date and time voted
14.7 QR code which shall contain the candidates voted per position, ballot
serial number, ballot ID, name and title of election, EB digital signature
text code
14.8 The functionality shall be enabled or disabled (based on the set

configuration in EMS)
14.9 The vote receipt shall be cut automatically, immediately after printing
14.10 Vote receipt shall be saved in PDF file or other printable file
15. The ACM shall allow review, by the voter, of the voted candidates per position
in the screen of up to 20 seconds.
15.1This functionality may be turned-on or off in the configuration in the EMS.
16. The ACM shall require authorization from the configuration-specified number
of EB members through the use of unique user name/ID, with PIN/password,
and the assigned physical security device.
17. In the implementation of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), the ACM shall be
capable to accept three (3) EB members for each precinct, as indicated in
the EMS configuration, and to digitally sign the precinct results before printing
the ER and transmitting the same to the designated destination.
17.1 This functionality shall be demonstrated during Systems Evaluation.
18. The ACM shall automatically create and maintain an immutable (if log is
opened and edited outside the system, the system will not work anymore)
and printable audit log report, recording the following information, subject to
the additional requirements as may be ordered by the COMELEC, at no cost
to the Commission:
18.1 The ACM shall automatically record in its audit log the unique machine
identifier or any other machine identifier that is unique to each ACM.
18.2 The ACM shall automatically record in its audit log the voting jurisdiction
configuration.
18.3 The ACM shall automatically record in its audit log the date-and-time
stamps of each system event and user-interaction activity.
18.4 The ACM shall automatically record in its audit log the type of ACM
event.
18.5 The ACM shall automatically record in its audit log the specific ACM
action or activity.
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18.6 The ACM shall automatically record in its audit log the specific identity of
each user (such as EB Chairman, Poll Clerk, Member, or ACM Technical
Support).
18.7 The ACM shall automatically record in its audit log the outcome (success
or failure) of ACM events.
18.8 The ACM shall automatically record in its audit log when any of the
hardware compartment of the ACM is access/open.
18.9 The ACM audit log shall contain information on the specific error
messages for errors encountered by the system, including system and
user errors.
18.10 The ACM shall write its log entries in such a way that they can be easily
understood by its regular users and shall not make use of coded
language, without readily providing the equivalent meaning.
18.11 The ACM shall enable its user to select a period of date/time to display
or print the concerned contents of the log files.
18.11.1 The actual handling of this error shall be finalized during the
Systems Customization Phase.
19. The ACM shall automatically generate the precinct’s election results
immediately after counting of votes.
20. The ACM shall be able to generate and print the Election Returns (ER),
statistical report and audit log for a precinct.
20.1 As a customization requirement, the formats of the ER, statistical report

and audit log report shall comply with COMELEC’s final specifications.
20.1.1 The ER, aside from its format, shall contain a QR Code which shall
indicate the hash code of the results in the ER.
20.1.2 The ER shall contain the information of the EB names which shall
be taken from the digital certificates, if possible.
20.2 The ACM shall ensure that the print out on all ACM reports including voter
receipt shall remain legible for a minimum of six (6) years.
21. The ACM shall generate and print the ACM statistical report after all the ERs
have been printed and transmitted.
21.1 As a customization requirement, statistical report shall have the following

information, among others:
21.1.1 The ACM shall include in its ACM statistical report the
demographic information for the precinct (Province,
City/municipality, post/embassy, barangay name, precinct
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number or clustered precinct name with the individual precinct

numbers).
21.1.2 The ACM shall include in its ACM statistical report the number of
registered voters for the precinct.
under-votes for every position.
over-votes for every position if applicable.
valid votes for every position.
fake or spurious ballots, if possible.
rejected ballots scanned, if possible.
22. The ACM shall be able to create and save election results files, database or
dump files, print files, and other files needed for canvassing and consolidation,
which shall not be removed or erased from memory even if the machine is
turned off.
22.1 The ACM shall be able to encrypt the election results and other related
files which are needed for canvassing/consolidation using AES 256
encryption methodology or higher.
22.2 The ACM shall be able to encrypt the database files or dump files for: (1)
audit log; (2) election returns; (3) ballot images; (4) statistical report and
(5) voter receipt, using at least 256-bit standard encryption
methodology.
22.3 As a customization requirement, The ACM shall be able to generate hash

code of the result and print in all reports generated
22.4 The ACM shall be able to create and save e-Day files of print file reports
of (1) Election Returns (ER); (2) audit log; (3) statistical report; (4) vote
receipt; and (5) hash code generated for election results.
23. The ACM shall be able to transmit, using the designated transmission service,
using AES 256 encryption and digitally signed election results files including the
IP address of the ACM at the time of transmission, from the ACM to the EMS-
configured destinations, such as the City/Municipal/post or embassy BOC, the
Central Server, and the dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP,
citizen’s arm servers. The following shall be transmitted:
23.1 To the City/Municipal/Post/Country the precinct results, statistical report,

and names of EB
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23.2 To the Dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s
arm servers the precinct results, statistical report and voter receipt file
23.3 To the central server, the precinct results and statistical report
24. The ACM shall use at least six authentication factors.
25. The ACM shall accommodate at least two (2) data storage devices to be
exact duplicates of each other in real-time.
25.1 As a customization requirement:
25.1.1 The ACM shall be capable of writing all data/files, voter’s receipts,
audit log, statistics and ballot images to the corresponding
synchronized data storage devices.
25.1.2 The ACM shall be able to detect the failure of any data storage
devices at any given time.
25.1.3 Any of the data storage devices may be used to manually upload
the concerned precinct results to the CCS, in case of failure of
electronic transmission.
26. At the end of e-Day or at the close of polls, the ACM shall be able to finalize and
close all e-Day data files in a the data storage devices from further Write
operations after the final backup file generation.
26.1 The WORM technology shall be available in the market and shall not be
proprietary to the provider of the ACM
27. The ACM shall be capable of zeroing out its result count storage which shall
erase all previous counts in it.
27.1 The ACM shall be able to generate an Initialization Report after this
zeroing out to show that no votes have been cast or counted.
27.2 The ACM’s re-zero function shall permanently delete all files created
during the counting, including the ballot images, except for the audit log
report.
27.3 The ACM shall require the number of configuration-specified EB

members, including the required user ID/name and unique password for
the designated ACM before executing the re-zero function.
27.4 The ACM’s re-zero function shall only be used in as many times as the
configuration-specified number of times for the same.
28. The ACM shall allow under-voting in any position to be voted for.
28.1.1 For statistical purposes, the ACM shall record the number of under-
votes as the number of the un-voted seats in a position.
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28.1.2 If there is only one required seat for an elective position and it was
not voted, the ACM shall record it as an under-vote for the
position.
28.1.3 The list of under-votes shall contain number of un-voted seats per
position.
29. The ACM shall comply with COMELEC requirements for hardening its operating
system, which shall be specified in the Systems Customization Phase.
29.1 If the system uses a customer-off-the-shelf (COTS) operating system (OS),

the winning Bidder shall submit an OS hardening procedure
documentation, which shall be subject to the agreement, final approval
and modification by COMELEC.
30. There shall be a separate application that shall allow decryption and which
shall have the following functionalities:
30.1 The decryption application shall decrypt the files from the data storage
device used at the precinct level containing the ballot images, local
returns, national returns, audit log, statistics, voter receipt or other files.
The following are customization requirements:
30.1.1 The decryption application shall generate the filenames of the

decrypted files to include the province code, city/municipality
code and clustered precinct codes.
30.1.2 The decryption application shall create the list of filenames of the
ballot images sorted by filename, to be saved to file in MS excel
format.
30.1.3 The decryption application shall split each ballot image file into
three (3) pages, i.e. one page for the front of the ballot image,
another page for the back of the ballot image, and another page
for the summary of votes interpretation, such as but not limited to
candidates voted, number of over-votes, abstention and under-
vote. For BARMM, there will be four (4) pages.
30.1.4 The decryption application shall indicate the filename to be

printed at the top of each page.
30.1.5 The decryption application shall generate the filename of the

ballot to contain its unique ballot ID.
30.1.6 The decryption application shall convert the ballot images into
PDF or other required format.
30.1.7 The decryption application shall be able to merge the individual

image files into one file.
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30.1.8 The decryption application shall be able to generate a hash code

for the merged file.
30.1.9 The decryption application shall have a functionality for saving

the concerned files, and the corresponding hash codes, to an
external data storage device.
30.1.10 The decryption application shall have a display and print

functionality for the hash codes, list of filenames, merged file and
other decrypted files, as applicable.
31. The ACM shall be capable of creating a back-up of all data/files, which can
be used for manual upload to the CCS, in case of failure of transmission.
32. The ACM shall have an Open Voting and a Close Voting mode.
32.1 The Open Voting mode of the ACM shall signal the start of allowing the
scanning of ballots/ voting through selection in the screen of the ACM.
32.2 The ACM shall only allow the voting while the system is in Open Voting
mode.
32.3 The Close Voting mode of the ACM shall give a signal to stop allowing
the scanning of ballots into the ACM after which signals the start of
report generation and electronic transmission activities.
33. The ACM shall have a built-in functionality for performing diagnostic tests
which shall test all conditions of the parts of the ACM and prompting system
alerts to indicate the faulty condition of the parts and ballot sensor of the ACM
whenever a ballot is cast.
33.1 The ACM shall be able to generate a ACM diagnostics report, which shall
indicate the diagnosed status of the working condition of all applicable
ACM components.
34. The ACM shall protect the sanctity and secrecy of the voter’s vote by ensuring
that the record of the vote shall not be traced to the voter.
35. As a customization requirement, the ACM shall indicate in the screen, status
of the ACM e.g. if the ACM is Open for scanning, it shall show in the screen
Open, if results is transmitted, it shall show in the screen transmitted.
36. The ACM shall have the following minimum customizable functionalities (unless
otherwise indicated as a minimum requirement) to be tested and verified
during the scheduled systems customization or before the systems
acceptance.
36.1 The ACM shall be able to match the hash code of the installed ACM
application to the trusted build hash code. In case of discrepancy, the
system shall prompt a message that the hash code did not match.
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36.1.1 The ACM shall display the hash code of the system, the date and
name of elections, system’s current date and time and the
election configuration details on the ACM’s display panel upon
system start up.
36.1.2 The ACM shall be able to display the above information on the
ACM’s display long enough for visual verification purposes. (For
this purpose, this duration shall be configurable in the system.)
36.1.3 The ACM shall be able to print its hash code in all ACM reports to
be generated by the machine.
36.2 The messages, prompts, and reports and statistics format of the ACM
shall be in accordance with the COMELEC requirements and shall be
subject to modification and finalization during the Systems Customization
Phase.
36.3 Entries in the log files shall be written in such a way that they can be easily
understood and shall not make use of coded language, without readily
providing the equivalent meaning, and shall be subject to modification
and finalization during the Systems Customization Phase.
36.4 The ACM shall allow the indication of a user-specified date range for the
selective display and printing of audit log entries.
36.5 The ACM shall generate an electronic transmission report that shall
automatically be generated after the success or failure, in part or all, of
transmission attempts by the ACM, and which shall record such
transmission status on the report.
36.6 The final design, including on-screen messages, prompts and instructions,
together with other applicable system functionalities of the ACM for e-
Day use shall still be subject to final customization requirements by the
COMELEC.
37. The proposed ACM shall have demonstrated capability (which shall be
verified and validated in a test environment) and shall have been successfully
used in a prior electoral exercise here or abroad, with a written certification to
that fact from the election authority or election management body of the
client.
II. Requirements specific to ACM using paper-based ballot
1. The ACM shall allow the accurate counting of ballots intended for an
established or a clustered precinct, based on its configuration.
2. The ACM system shall make use of paper ballots with spaces for
indicating the vote by marking the marking space provided for such
purpose.
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3. The ACM system may make use of different shapes (such as ovals,
squares, circles, stamping, or broken arrows) as marking spaces, as long
as the marks can be recognized by the proposed ACM.
3. The ACM system shall be able to recognize ink marks on the ballot and
count the corresponding votes accurately.
4. The ACM system shall allow for the manual feeding of a ballot into the
ACM with auto align feature.
5. The ACM shall be able to accept and interpret votes on the ballot
inserted skewed, or has a ballot auto align feature.
6. The ACM system shall be able to accept two (2) ballots per voter in the
BARMM as specified in the configuration.
6.1. For purposes of statistics, the two (2) ballots per voter shall be
counted as one (1).
7. The ACM must be able to simultaneously read a double-side (printed in

both faces) ballot or a single-side (printed in only one of the faces)
without anyone to manipulate such ballot.
8. The ACM system’s hardware shall have a ballot scanner.
8.1. The ACM system’s ballot scanner shall be capable of scanning

the front and back of a ballot in one pass in any portrait
orientation.

a ballot sheet at the speed of at least 200 mm per second.

a ballot at a resolution of at least 200 dots per inch (dpi).

a ballot in at least 4-bit grayscale image.
8.4.1. For verification purposes, the Bidder shall submit samples

of 4-bit grayscale image ballots, which shall be tested
during the Systems Evaluation as part of the Post-
Qualification procedure.
8.4.2. The Bidder shall submit documentary proof that the said
sample ballot uses a 4-bit grayscale image.
8.4.3. The compliance to the ballot’s 4-bit grayscale image

requirement shall be subject to verification by the DOST.
8.5. The ACM system’s ballot scanner shall be capable of integrity

checking or self-checking of the physical condition of the
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scanner, and which shall alert or prompt its user that the scanner
is not in good condition.
9. The ACM system shall be able to digitally capture the image of both sides
of the cast ballot.
9.1. The ACM system shall store in an encrypted format the digital
images of the ballots assigned to a precinct for at least 2,000
ballot images.
9.2. The ACM system shall generate the ballot image that shall be
accompanied with information on the ballot ID, machine ID,
candidates voted per position, including remarks on number of
under-votes, over-votes or abstentions per position.
9.2.1. The ballot image shall be as same of the original copy of

the ballot on one page and a second page shall
contain information on the ballot ID, machine ID,
candidates voted per position, including remarks on
number of under-votes, over-votes or abstentions per
position.
9.2.2. The ACM shall, after transmission or closing of polls, have

all ballot images (back and front) read to be displayed
in the screen, one by one, and displaying in the screen
the votes obtained by each candidate in the form of
tara, and total vote of each candidate, after the display
of each ballot image.
10. The ACM system shall enable the provision of a space on the ballot for
printing a visual NPO or BSP security marking.
11. The ACM system shall have a vote verification feature which shall display
and print the voter’s choices, which can be enabled or disabled in the
configuration using the EMS.
12. The ACM system shall have appropriate and necessary safeguards to
determine the authenticity of a ballot, such as, but not limited to, the use
of bar codes, QR codes, holograms, color shifting ink, micro printing, and
ultra-violet (UV) ink marks, to be provided on the ballot.
13. The ACM system shall be able to detect and reject fake or spurious, and
previously–scanned ballots, and display the specific reason for such
rejection, and record the same in the audit log.
14. The ACM shall allow under-voting in any position to be voted for. The
ACM shall interpret an under-voting as a mark in the marking space, for
a position that is less than the number of seats required for the position
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15. The ACM system shall be able to detect a mark on a designated spot of
the ballot and shall be evaluated based on an EMS-configured
threshold.
15.1. If a mark cannot be determined by the ACM system as a “valid

mark” or “no mark”, based on the set configuration in the EMS,
the ACM system shall have the capability to display a message
indicating the position and candidate affected by this ambiguity.
15.2. As a customization requirement in such case, the ACM system

shall prompt the voter on whether to cast or return the ballot for
correction.
15.2.1. The ACM system shall not allow such ballot to be pulled out
from the ACM until such time that the voter specifically
decides to return it.
15.2.2. The time limit whether to cast or return the ballot shall be
configured in the EMS. If the voter did not press any button
within the time limit it is deemed accepted by the voter,
and the system shall automatically accept the ballot.
15.2.3. The ACM system shall not allow such ballot to be

automatically accepted by the ACM until such time that
the voter specifically decides to cast it.
15.2.4. In case a ballot with a ACM-identified ambiguous mark is

opted to be cast, the ACM system shall not count such
mark as a vote.
15.2.5. The EMS shall be capable of enabling or disabling this

functionality.
16. In case of over-voting in a position, the ACM system shall not credit any
vote for any candidate in the over-voted position with the ballot
remaining valid.
16.1.1. In case of over-voting in one or more positions, the ACM

system shall count the rest of the valid votes for the other
positions.
16.1.2. The ACM system shall interpret an over-voting as when

the number of marks for a position exceeds the set
number of seats to be voted for e.g. in a position vote
for 1 but with more than one candidates marked, the
system will not credit vote to any candidate.
16.1.3. For statistical purposes, the ACM system shall record the
number of over-votes per position where there are over-
votes (For example, if the voter voted more than one
candidate for the position of president, the system shall
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count the occurrence of one (1) over vote for the

President position. If more than twelve (12) candidates
are voted for the position of Senator, the system will
count the occurrence of one (1) over vote for the
Senator position.)
16.2. The ACM system shall not allow counting of ballots which is more
than the specified number of registered voters for the ACM’s
configured precinct.
17. The ACM shall allow under-voting in any position to be voted for. The
ACM shall interpret an under-voting as a mark in the marking
space/selected from the screen, for a position that is less than the
number of seats required for the position.
III. Requirements specific DRE Capability
1. The system shall make use of the screen or monitor for registering the
vote/s.
2. The system shall make use of touch-screens, push-buttons, or similar

device for voters to indicate their vote.
3. The DRE system shall be accessible to illiterates and persons with

disabilities.
4. The DRE system shall be capable of locking the voting, in case the voter
reached the configured number of minutes to vote.
5. In case that voting has been locked, the DRE system shall count only
the votes made before it is locked and shall inform the voter of the
event.
6. In case that voting has been locked, the EMS-configured number of

authorized BEI members shall be able to unlock the EVM in order to
have the concerned voter continue with the voting procedure.
7. The DRE shall not allow over-voting.
8. The EMS shall be capable of enabling or disabling this functionality of

DRE locking and unlocking.
9. The DRE system shall not allow selection of candidates if the voter
already reached the number of seats for the position/s. For this
purpose, there shall be no overvote in the statistical report.
C. CONSOLIDATION AND CANVASSING SYSTEM (CCS)
1. The winning bidder shall provide for a CCS hardware and software.
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1.1. There shall be a CCS to be installed and made operational for each of the
following levels of canvassing, as configured by the EMS for purposes of
2025 National and Local Elections, to be manned by a Board of Canvassers
(BOC):
1.1.1. City/Municipal level, manned by a City BOC (CBOC) or a Municipal

BOC (MBOC), which shall:
1.1.1.1. Receive the transmitted encrypted precinct results or

manually uploaded contents of storage device (in case
of failure of transmission), together with the encrypted ER,
names of EBs, and statistics, from the corresponding
ACMs;
1.1.1.2. Consequently, consolidate and canvass the votes for all

elective positions, statistics and the number of clustered
precincts included in the consolidated results/expected
number of clustered precincts;
1.1.1.3. Generate and print all canvassing reports and

consolidated statistical reports in the city/municipality,
names of EBs per clustered precinct and barangay in
case of BSKE;
1.1.1.4. Transmit to the following (location of transmission as

indicated in the CCS configuration file generated by
EMS):
1.1.1.4.1. To the Provincial BOC (PBOC), the consolidated

results, the number of clustered precincts
included in the consolidated results/expected
number of clustered precincts and statistical
reports for:
1.1.1.4.1.1. Provincial positions of Governor,

Vice-Governor, Board Members;
1.1.1.4.1.2. Member-House of Representatives

(HOR);
1.1.1.4.1.3. Parliament District Members, and

Party Representatives for BARMM;
1.1.1.4.1.4. National positions of President, Vice-

President, Senators and Party-List
Organizations.
1.1.1.4.2. To the Central Server, a copy of precinct results,

statistics and the number of clustered precincts
number of clustered precincts with
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corresponding clustered precinct codes not

included in the received consolidated results,
statistical report and all generated consolidated
results;
1.1.1.4.3. To the Taguig-Pateros District BOC (DBOC),

corresponding clustered precinct code not
included in the received consolidated results
and consolidated results for:
1.1.1.4.3.1. Member-House of Representatives

(HOR);
1.1.1.4.3.2. National positions of President, Vice-

President, Senators and Party-List
Groups.
1.1.2. HUC level, which shall:
1.1.2.1. Receive the transmitted precinct results or manually

uploaded contents of storage device (in case of failure of
transmission), together with the ER, names of EBs, and
statistics, from the corresponding ACMs;
1.1.2.2. Consequently, consolidate and canvass for all available

elective positions, statistics and the number of clustered
number of clustered precincts with corresponding
clustered precinct code not included in the received
consolidated results;
1.1.2.3. Generate and print all the canvassing reports and

consolidated, names of EBs per clustered precinct,
statistical reports; reports in the city/municipality and
barangay in case of BSKE and
1.1.2.4. Transmit to the following:
1.1.2.4.1. To the National BOC in COMELEC (NBOC-

COMELEC), the consolidated results for Senators
and Party-List Groups, statistics and the number
of clustered precincts included in the
consolidated results/expected number of
clustered precincts with corresponding
clustered precinct codes not included in the
received consolidated results;
1.1.2.4.2. To the National BOC in Congress (NBOC-
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Congress), the consolidated results for President

and Vice-President, statistics and the number of
clustered precincts included in the consolidated
results/expected number of clustered precincts
with corresponding clustered precinct codes
not included in the received consolidated
results;
1.1.2.4.3. To the Central Server, a copy of all generated

consolidated results statistics and the number of
with corresponding clustered precinct code not
included in the received consolidated results.
1.1.3. Post/Embassy level, which shall:
1.1.3.1. Receive the transmitted precinct results or manually

uploaded contents of storage device(in case of failure of
transmission), together with the ER, audit log, and
statistical report from the corresponding ACMs for
Overseas Voting (OV);
1.1.3.2. Consequently, consolidate and canvass the results for

national positions only, statistics and the number of
results/expected number of clustered precincts with
corresponding clustered precinct codes not included in
the received consolidated results;

consolidated statistical reports; and
1.1.3.4.1. To the NBOC-COMELEC, the consolidated

results for Senators and Party-List Groups,
included in the received consolidated results;
1.1.3.4.2. To the NBOC-Congress, the consolidated results,

corresponding clustered precinct code not
included in the received consolidated results for
President and Vice-President;
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with corresponding clustered precinct code not
included in the received consolidated results.
1.1.4. District level (applicable only to the Taguig-Pateros District), which

shall:
1.1.4.1. Receive the transmitted city/municipal results or manually

transmission), statistics and the number of clustered
clustered precinct code not included in the received
consolidated results from the CCS units of Pateros MBOC
and Taguig CBOC only;
1.1.4.2. Consequently, consolidate and canvass the results,

statistics and the number of clustered precincts included
in the consolidated results/expected number of clustered
precincts with corresponding clustered precinct codes
not included in the received consolidated results for the
Member, House of Representatives for the Legislative
District of Pateros and Taguig City-2nd Councilor District,
and national positions;


results, statistics and the number of clustered
precincts included in the consolidated
not included in the received consolidated results
for Senators and Party-List Groups;

President and Vice-President;
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results.
1.1.5. Provincial level, manned by a PBOC, except for the BARMM

provinces, which shall:

clustered precinct codes not included in the received
consolidated results from the CCS units of the
corresponding CBOCs and MBOCs;
1.1.5.2. Consequently, consolidate and canvass the results,

not included in the received consolidated results for
provincial positions, such as Provincial Governor, Vice-
Governor, Board Members, and Member-HOR, and
national positions;


results, statistics and the number of clustered
precincts included in the consolidated
results for Senators and Party-List Groups;

President and Vice-President.
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1.1.6. Provincial level, also manned by a PBOC, for the BARMM provinces
only, which shall:

clustered precinct codes not included in the received
consolidated results from the CCS units of the
corresponding CBOCs and MBOCs; and
1.1.6.2. Consequently, consolidate and canvass the results for

provincial positions, such as Provincial Governor, Vice-
Governor, Board Members, Member-HOR, Parliament
district members, Party Representatives and national
positions;


results for Senators and Party-List Groups;
1.1.6.4.2. To the NBOC-Congress, the consolidated results

for President and Vice-President;

consolidated results; and
1.1.6.4.4. To the RBOC for the consolidated results for Party

Representatives.
1.1.7. Regional level, manned by a Regional BOC (RBOC), for the BARMM
only, which shall:
1.1.7.1. Receive the transmitted results for regional positions from

the provincial CCS results or manually uploaded contents
of storage device (in case of failure of transmission),
not included in the received consolidated results from the
CCS units of the corresponding PBOC;
1.1.7.2. Consequently consolidate and canvass the results for

party representatives;
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consolidated statistical reports;
1.1.7.4. Transmit to the Central Server a copy of all consolidated

results.
1.1.8. COMELEC-National level, manned by NBOC-COMELEC which shall:
1.1.8.1. Receive HUC, provincial, district, OV and LAV5 results, or

manually uploaded contents of storage device(in case of
failure of transmission) and manual input of votes for areas
that implemented manual election, statistics and the
number of clustered precincts included in the
consolidated results/expected number of clustered
not included in the received consolidated results for
Senator and Party-List positions for NBOC-COMELEC and
President and Vice-President positions for NBOC-
Congress;
1.1.8.2. Consequently consolidate and canvass the results,

precincts with corresponding clustered precinct code not
included in the received consolidated results for Senators
and Party-List Organizations positions for NBOC-COMELEC
and President and Vice-President positions for NBOC-
Congress;

1.1.8.4. Transmit to the central server a copy of all consolidated

results generated.
1.2. Dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm
servers, which shall:
1.2.1. Receive all transmission results or manually uploaded contents of

storage device(in case of failure of transmission), vote receipt file,
statistics and the number of clustered precincts included in the
consolidated results/expected number of clustered precincts with
corresponding clustered precinct code not included in the
received consolidated results from the ACM;
1.2.2. Transmit results in a frequency time set in the server, to the media
server:
1.2.2.1. The media server shall transmit to the workstation
5
LAV refers to local absentee voting.
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provided by the media, the results in csv or excel format

for its processing;
1.2.2.2. The winning bidder must provide one separate

workstation for the political parties, media entities and
citizen’s arm.
1.2.3. Transmit results or synchronize data to the dominant minority

party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm servers back up,
which shall automatically be activated and use as dominant
minority party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm servers
in case of main server malfunctioned.
1.2.4. As a customization requirement, there shall be a functionality in

the server that shall allow export of vote receipt received by the
dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s
arm servers server, to a server folder or a storage device folder.
1.2.4.1. The export of file shall be selected by user in the order

of by province/city/municipality/post/clustered
precinct.
1.3. Central Server which shall:
1.3.1. Receive results or manually uploaded contents of storage

device(in case of failure of transmission), statistics and the number
of clustered precincts included in the consolidated
results/expected number of clustered precincts with corresponding
clustered precinct codes not included in the received consolidated
results from all ACM and all CCS;
1.3.2. Transmit all received results to website;
1.3.3. As a customization requirement, Central Server shall be able to

generate results file containing list of expected results and list of
received results, in csv format. The file shall also contain voting
jurisdiction (province, city/municipality/post/country/
barangay/clustered precinct/machine serial number), date and
time received;
1.3.4. Transmit results or synchronize data to Central Server back-up

which shall be automatically activated and use as Central
Server, in case of the main server malfunctioning.
1.4. The CCS shall have election management data capabilities, which shall
include the following, among others:
1.4.1. The system shall have a utility to accept election data from the EMS
configuration such as voting jurisdiction data and candidate
information, digital certificates, BOC security keys, destination of
transmission and other needed configuration data.
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1.4.2. The CCS configuration files shall be specific to a level of canvassing

and for a specific BOC, including the Central Server and dominant
minority party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm servers
server and their back-ups.
1.4.2.1. For example, if the CCS is intended for Makati, the

information contained in the configuration file should only
be specific to Makati i.e., voting jurisdictions in Makati,
candidates of Makati and national positions, if the CCS is
intended to Central or dominant minority party,
dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm Servers, the
information contained in the configuration file should be
for nationwide voting jurisdictions and candidates, etc.
1.4.3. All e-Day-specific information shall NOT be hardcoded into the

system, but shall be referred to from external reference files or
configuration files.
1.5. The system shall employ sufficient security measures with regard to system
access with the use of:
1.5.1. Unique user name/ID and password for each member of the BOC
or system operator; and
1.5.2. Physical security devices, such as but not limited to USB flash drives,
with digital certificates for each BOC Member or system operator.
1.6. The system shall have an initialization function which shall:
1.6.1. Be accessed only by the authorization of all members of BOC or

system operator with the use of their security keys and passwords;
1.6.2. Erase all previous election results in the CCS unit’s memory,
including all other corresponding election-related files and
databases, except for logs; and
1.6.3. Consequently, generate and print an Initialization Report.
1.7. The CCS shall only receive encrypted election results from configured
areas within its jurisdiction.
1.8. The CCS shall use the electronically transmitted encrypted results, or the
manually imported encrypted results as contained in the authorized data
storage devices, or data entry, as input for processing.
1.9. It shall require the authentication of the EMS-configured number of BOC

members or system operator with the use of their corresponding physical
security keys containing their digital certificates/signatures.
1.10. The CCS shall decrypt and authenticate the transmitted/loaded

encrypted election results prior to consolidation and canvassing.
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1.11. The CCS shall detect previously accepted election results and shall prevent
the same from being entered again into the system.
1.11.1. In case the result of the new transmission is different from the
previous received result, the CCS shall allow display of the two (2)
results and allow the BOC to select which result is correct based on
the lower level CCS BOC.
1.11.2. As a customization requirement, this functionality shall be activated

by at least two (2) members of the BOC.
1.12. The CCS shall allow manual encoding of results for the pre-determined
areas configured in the EMS that shall implement manual elections.
1.12.1. As a customization requirement, execution of this functionality shall

require the EMS-configured number of BOC members, with the use
of their corresponding physical security devices containing their
digital certificates/signatures.
1.12.2. Availability of this optional functionality shall be set in the

corresponding CCS configuration file.
1.13. The CCS shall provide monitoring transmission functionality of the results
received or loaded displaying:
1.13.1. For city/HUC/municipal/post/embassy CCS:
1.13.1.1. list of clustered precincts expected to be received,

1.13.1.2. the status of transmission,
1.13.1.3. number of registered voters,
1.13.1.4. date and time received or loaded or encoded,
1.13.1.5. number of ballots scanned,
1.13.1.6. number of voters who actually voted, if possible,
1.13.1.7. percentage of ballots scanned with the number of voters
who actually voted, if possible,
1.13.1.8. mode of results receipt (i.e. whether electronically
transmitted or manually loaded) for each corresponding
clustered precinct result.
1.13.2. For provincial/District CCS:
1.13.2.1. list of city/municipalities expected to be received,

1.13.2.2. status of transmission,
1.13.2.4. date and time,
1.13.2.6. actually voted, if possible,
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transmitted or manually loaded or data entry) for each
corresponding city/municipal result,
1.13.2.9. Remarks if Partial or Complete (indicating number of
precincts included in the transmitted results).
1.13.3. For regional CCS (for BARMM only):
1.13.3.1. list of provinces expected to be received,

1.13.3.2. the status of transmission, number of registered voters,
1.13.3.3. date and time received or loaded,
1.13.3.7. mode of results receipt (whether electronically
transmitted or manually loaded),
precincts included in the transmitted results) for each
corresponding provincial result.
1.13.4. For national CCS:
1.13.4.1. list of HUCs, district, provinces, OV participating countries,

including LAV, which are expected to be received,
1.13.4.2. the status of transmission,
1.13.4.4. date and time received or loaded,
1.13.4.8. mode of results receipt (whether electronically
transmitted or manually loaded),
precincts included in the transmitted results) for each
corresponding expected result.
1.13.5. For Central Server:
1.13.5.1. List of clustered precincts per city/municipality/post/

country/province/region which are expected to be
received and received,
1.13.5.2. List of city/municipality/post/country per province and
region which are expected to be received and received,
1.13.5.3. Status of transmission,
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1.13.5.4. Number of registered voters,

1.13.5.5. Date and time received,
corresponding city/municipality result,
precincts included in the transmitted results).
1.13.6. For dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP,

citizen’s arm servers server:
1.13.6.1. List of clustered precincts per city/municipality/post/

country/province/region which are expected to be
received and received,
1.13.6.2. Status of transmission,
1.13.6.3. Number of registered voters,
1.13.6.4. Date and time received,
corresponding city/municipal result.
1.14. The CCS shall accurately consolidate and canvass the corresponding
results from all expected precincts/city/municipal/provincial/district results,
as the case maybe, except for Central Server and dominant minority
party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm servers.
1.14.1. For the city/municipal/post/embassy BOC using precinct results;

1.14.2. For provincial/district BOC using consolidated city and municipal
results;
1.14.3. For regional BOC using consolidated BARMM provincial results; and
1.14.4. For national BOC (NBOC-COMELEC and NBOC-Congress), using
consolidated provincial, district (Taguig-Pateros), and highly
urbanized city results.
1.15. The CCS shall be capable of determining if a tie of votes exists in the
winning candidates. If there is a tie, the CCS shall allow change in the
order of rank by authorized user input, except for Central Server and
dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm
servers.
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1.16. The CCS shall be able to generate the reports which format shall be
provided by COMELEC during customization, such as, but not limited to,
the following:
1.16.1. the Initialization/Zero Out Report;

1.16.2. Election Returns/ CCS Statistical Reports;
1.16.3. Error and system logs Report;
1.16.4. Precinct Statistical Report;
1.16.5. Transmission Log;
1.16.6. Transmission Monitoring Report;
1.16.7. Certificate of Canvass of Votes (COC)
1.16.8. Statement of Votes (SOV);
1.16.9. Certificate of Canvass and Proclamation (COCP);
1.16.10. Post Election Report; and
1.16.11. Status Report.
1.17. The winning bidder shall provide a tool for extracting all programs and
validating their hash codes.
1.17.1. The system hardening must comply with the COMELEC

requirements.
1.17.2. The winning bidder shall submit hardening procedure
documentation of all systems and said documentation must be
approved by the COMELEC.
1.17.3. Hardening of the CCS machine’s OS shall be in the presence of
authorized COMELEC representative/s.
1.18. The CCS shall have a functionality to transmit consolidated results to the
next CCS level and to central server, by the following options:
1.18.1. All positions; or

1.18.2. Per elective position group, e.g. national group, provincial group, or
city/municipal group.
1.18.2.1. National group (President, Vice-President, Senator, Party-
list);
1.18.2.2. Regional Group (Parliament Members and Party
Representatives)
1.18.2.3. Provincial group (Congressman, Governor, Vice-
Governor and Sangguniang Panlalawigan).
1.18.2.4. City/Municipal group (Mayor, Vice-Mayor, Sangguniang
Panlungsod/Bayan).
1.19. The CCS shall allow transmission of the following information, included in
the consolidated results:
1.19.1. list of precincts for City/municipal CCS;

1.19.2. list of cities/municipalities for provincial CCS;
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1.19.3. list of provinces for RBOC;

1.19.4. list of provinces/district/HUCs for NBOC CCS.
1.20. The CCS shall require the EMS-configured number of BOC members or
system operators, to digitally sign all electronic results and system-
generated reports before transmitting the same.
1.21. The CCS shall make use of a GUI, including, but not limited to, clear,
descriptive and understandable screen prompts, error messages and help
screens.
1.22. In real time, to a separate data storage devices, of all configuration data
and election results.
1.22.1. The system shall be able to restore the contents of data storage
device to a contingency CCS, in case of hardware failure.
1.22.2. After a data restoration procedure, the system shall proceed using
the CCS using the data restored therein.
1.23. The system shall automatically create and maintain an immutable and
printable audit log report, recording the following minimum information:
1.23.1. Unique machine identifier, such as Media Access Control (MAC)

address, or any other machine identifier that is unique to each CCS
unit;
1.23.2. Canvassing jurisdiction configuration;
1.23.3. Date-and-time stamps of each system event and user-interaction

activity;
1.23.4. Type of event;
1.23.5. Specific action or activity;
1.23.6. Specific error message;
1.23.7. Specific identity of users (i.e. Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Member);

and
1.23.8. The outcome (success or failure) of the event.
1.24. The audit log shall be written in such a way that it can be easily understood.
1.25. The CCS shall restart and resume the operation without any loss of data
in the event of an abnormal termination of the system.
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1.25.1. As a customization requirement, there shall be a status report

immediately after the resumption of operation.
1.25.2. The format of the status report shall be provided by COMELEC
during customization phase.
1.26. Initialization of the system shall be executed as many times as indicated in

the CCS configuration.
1.26.1. This function shall check the database of transmitted/loaded results

prior to execution.
1.26.1.1. If the database is not empty, the system shall prompt the
user and shall allow mandatory initialization after user
confirmation.
1.27. The system shall have a closing of canvassing functionality which shall be
executed if all expected results have been received by the system before
all canvassing reports can be generated.
1.27.1. However, if the expected number of registered voters of the

precincts/ cities/municipalities or provinces transmitted/loaded is
not yet complete, the system shall compute if the remaining votes
shall not affect the standing of the presumed winning candidates
based on the remaining number of registered voters in the non-
received results, and afterwards, consequently allow the system
mandatory consolidation of votes by executing a functionality in
the CCS. This shall be recorded in the audit log report.
1.27.2. If after the partial proclamation for a specific position, there are still
expected results that were not received, the system shall still allow
receiving of results to complete the canvass and shall allow re-
generation of all reports.
1.27.2.1. Said regenerated report shall show the fact of

regeneration after the additional results have been
included (i.e. the COC, the SOV, and the COCP).
1.27.3. This is not applicable to Central Server and dominant minority party,
dominant majority party, KBP, citizen’s arm servers.
1.28. The CCS shall provide monitoring tallies functionality of the results received
or loaded displaying:
1.28.1. For HUC/city/municipal/post/embassy CCS
1.28.1.1. position and candidates’ name,
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1.28.1.2. votes obtained by each candidate per clustered precinct

with number of registered voters,
1.28.1.3. the manner of receipt of results (whether electronically
transmitted or manually loaded into the system), including
the date and time of receipt.
1.28.2. For provincial CCS
1.28.2.1. position and candidates name,

1.28.2.2. votes obtained by each candidate per city/municipality
with number of registered voters,
1.28.3. For regional CCS

1.28.3.2. votes obtained by each candidate per province with
number of registered voters,
1.28.4. For national CCS

1.28.4.2. votes obtained by each candidate per province/city with
number of registered voters, and
1.28.5. For Central Server

1.28.5.2. votes obtained by each candidate per clustered
precinct/city/municipality/post/country/province/district
/ region with number of registered voters, and
1.28.6. For dominant minority party, dominant majority party, KBP,

citizen’s arm servers
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1.28.6.2. votes obtained by each candidate per clustered precinct

with number of registered voters, and
1.29. The system shall generate and display a hash code of the program upon
opening the system. The said hash code shall be printed in all reports
generated by the machine.
1.30. The CCS shall have the capacity to monitor or show status report number
of received transmission or manually upload ACM results.
1.31. The CCS shall use at least six authentication factors.
1.32. For purposes of evaluation, the bidder shall demonstrate the transmission
of precincts from the proposed ACM to the proposed based-CCS.
1.33. The system for Central Server, dominant minority party, dominant majority
party, KBP, citizen’s arm servers and backup server shall be able to:
1.33.1. generate reports, such as, but not limited to the following:
1.33.1.1. results of each precincts in a format to be provided by

COMELEC;
1.33.1.2. statistics indicating the type or mode and number of
transmission device/media used;
1.33.1.3. list and number of clustered precincts,
cities/municipalities, districts, provinces, regions, and
NBOCs with successful transmission of ACM and CCS
results;
1.33.1.4. list and number of clustered precincts,
cities/municipalities, districts, provinces, regions, and
NBOCs without transmission of ACM and CCS results;
1.33.1.5. list and number of precincts, cities/municipalities, districts,
provinces, regions, and NBOCs with transmission attempts
of ACM and CCS results;
1.33.1.6. list of hostnames for each transmission; and
1.33.1.7. list of Machine IDs such as, MAC Address, or Serial
Numbers for each transmission.
1.34. The system for web server shall have the following general specifications:
1.34.1. Secure;
1.34.2. Enable real-time publication of precinct results and canvassing
results;
1.34.3. Website’s contents shall be accessible to the general public;
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1.34.4. The website shall be for displaying information to the public only and
visitors shall not be allowed to input/upload anything into the
website;
1.34.5. 99.99% available;
1.34.6. User-friendly;
1.34.7. Compliant6 with web accessibility standards and principles;
1.34.8. Fully compatible with the most common web browsers, such as, but
not limited to Internet Explorer and Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome
and Safari, including mobile browsers;
1.34.9. Shall have a link to the official COMELEC website in all of its pages;
and
1.34.10. Shall be compliant to the Data Privacy Act of 2012 to ensure all
personally identifiable information are highly secured.
1.35. The design and functionality of the system shall still be subject to final
customization requirements by the COMELEC. For this purpose, the bidder
shall submit a certification that all requirements for customization stated in
the TOR and RA 9369 shall be complied.
D. Other Requirements
I. ACM/EMS/CCS
1. In case there are stored procedure implemented in the system, the stored
procedure shall be hashed and its hash shall be included in the hashes to be
posted in the COMELEC website.
2. There shall be no password hard coded into the system.
COMPONENT 2: BALLOT PRINTING SERVICES
The winning bidder shall comply with the following minimum ballot requirements,
including the provision of ballot printing system, ballot paper, a ballot verification system
and equipment, and all other related goods and services for the purpose.
1. The winning bidder shall provide an estimated 73,000,000 ballots. (NOTE: This
will include official ballots, test ballots, public demo ballots, training ballots,
overseas ballots and LAV ballots)
1.1 The budget for ballots is at the rate of maximum of Php20.00 per ballot. This
unit cost includes cost of ballot paper with security features, ink, provider’s
services, brand new printers’ other requirements specified in this TOR and
printing services by the National Printing Office (NPO) and/or Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas, which services rate is estimated at Php5.00 per ballot.
The COMELEC will negotiate with the NPO as to the total contract amount
6
The design of the website shall ensure accessibility to people with disabilities and for mobile devices.
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for printing services. Thus, for the purpose of providing a uniform basis in the
computation of the financial proposals, the budget ceiling for ballots (less
NPO printing services) shall be maximum of Php15.00 per ballot.
2. The winning bidder shall provide the following minimum general requirements
for the provision of ballot-related goods and services:
Ballot printing system, which shall include all requirements, together with
all software, hardware, and services needed, to print the required
number of ballots for this Project;
Ballot paper, which shall include the provision of the needed ballot
paper that shall be compatible with the printing machines to be used
including its consumables, and the proposed ACM;
Ballot printing consumables, which shall include the provision of all

consumables, including supplies and materials, necessary to print the
required number of AES ballots;
Ballot verification systems, which shall include the provision of an

automated system for verification of the correctness and accuracy of
the printed ballots, together with the needed software, hardware,
consumables, supplies and materials for the purpose;
Ballot printing status monitoring system or Ballot Information Tracking

System (BITS), which shall include the provision of an automated system
for monitoring the status of ballot printing for project management
purposes;
Technical and administrative support services, which shall include the

provision of the needed support services, together with the required
number of technical and administrative support personnel, to effectively
implement the required printing services; and
And all other goods and services necessary to print the required number
of official ballots, including test, demo and training ballots.
3. The winning bidder shall install, set up and make operational a ballot printing
facility at no additional cost to COMELEC near or at the premises of the
National Printing Office (NPO), or at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP),
based on the schedule specified in the 2025 NLE Implementation Calendar7.
3.1 For this purpose, the winning bidder shall make proper coordination with
the NPO/BSP and the COMELEC Printing Committee.
3.2 The ballot printing facility shall be equipped with the following minimum
equipment, together with all the needed software to make them
operational for the Project, including all consumables, supplies and
7
The 2025 NLE AES timelines are presented at the end of this document.
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materials, as provided by the winning bidder at no additional cost to

COMELEC:
3.2.1 Ballot paper;
3.2.1.1 The ballot paper shall be compatible with the printer to

be used including its consumables. Test for compatibility
shall be conducted before the start of printing operations.
3.2.1.2 The ballot paper shall be compatible with and shall be

accepted by the ACM.
3.2.1.3 The ballot paper shall comply with the minimum

requirements of the ACM.
3.2.1.4 The ballot paper shall be of such quality as to prevent

markings on one side of the ballot to bleed through to the
other side.
3.2.2 Ballot printers;
3.2.2.1 The ballot printers shall be brand new and able to print the
ballots as required by the provider of the ACM, together
with all printable security features of the ballot. Three
printers shall be used during operations – two printers for
regular operations and one to serve as a contingent unit.
3.2.3 Printed ballot verifiers;
3.2.4 Barcode generators;
3.2.5 Barcode readers;
3.2.6 Servers;
3.2.7 Workstations;
3.2.8 Ballot ID and precinct ID generators;
3.2.9 Ballot ID and precinct ID verifiers; and
3.2.10 CCTV/Security cameras.
4. The winning bidder shall print the ballots for the following activities:
4.1 HAT (10,000 ballots);
4.2 Laboratory test (10,000 ballots);
4.3 PRELAT (348,381 ballots);
4.4 Field test (10,000 ballots);
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4.5 Mock election (10,000 ballots);
4.6 Demo (35,700 ballots);
4.7 Training (441,000 ballots);
4.8 FTS (1,161,270 ballots);
4.9 Test Certification (10,000 ballots);
4.10 Official ballots ( 73,498,709 estimated number of local and overseas

ballots); and
4.11 All rejected ballots attributable to factors that are caused by the winning
bidder, its equipment and personnel, shall be charged to its expense.
5. The ballot printing system shall comply with the following minimum
requirements:
5.1 The system shall be able to readily accept as input, without manual
intervention for file conversion, the EMS-generated PDF files of the ballot
faces for printing purposes.
5.2 The system shall be capable of generating and printing the required
number of ballots per clustered precinct.
5.3 The system shall be able to mark or identify precinct-specific ballots

separately from other precincts.
5.3.1 The precinct-specific ballots shall only be accepted by the ACM

which specifically configured for that specific precinct.
5.3.2 The precinct-specific ballot ID shall be verifiable by an automated

system for the purpose.
5.3.2.1 The winning bidder shall provide this system for verifying
this precinct-specific ballot ID at no additional cost to
COMELEC.
5.4 The system shall be able to generate a unique machine identifier for
each ballot printed, which shall be similar in concept to a serial number
on a manual ballot.
5.4.1 There shall be an automated way to check the unique identifier

of a ballot, which may be validated by a visual or manual process.
5.4.2 The system shall be able to re-print specific ballots based on this
unique ballot ID.
5.5 The system shall be able to accurately and correctly print the machine-
readable security features required by the AES.
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5.6 It shall make use of one or more ballot printers that shall be capable of
back-to-back printing in a single pass.
5.6.1 The bidder shall decide on the number, type and technical
specifications of the needed ballot printers to deliver the ballot
printing requirements within the specified time for the purpose.
5.6.2 The bidder shall submit with its bid the technical specifications of
the offered printer for the purpose, together with the number of
printers to be delivered for the purpose.
5.7 For every clustered precinct of ballots printed, there shall be:
5.7.1 A cover page indicating the province, city/municipality,

barangay, clustered precinct, precinct-specific ballot ID (or
precinct ID, for short) with equivalent barcode, and number of
ballots8; and
5.7.2 At least two (2) blank ballot papers that will divide the batch from
the next clustered precinct’s ballots.
5.8 The system shall be able to print ink marks that are recognizable by the
ACM.
5.9 The system shall be able to place on the designated space on the ballot
for additional visual security markings, which may not be machine-
detectable, as specified by the COMELEC, the NPO, or the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
5.9.1 The presence of these visual security markings shall not deter the
system’s capability for accurate counting of votes on the ballots.
6. The ballot verification system shall comply with the following minimum
requirements:
6.1 The system shall ensure the correctness and accuracy of each
generated and printed ballot.
6.2 The system shall verify the readability of each printed ballot by scanning
the same in separate ACMs which shall be configured for the purpose.
6.2.1 The winning bidder shall bear the cost for creating the ballot
verification configuration, including the cost for the software,
hardware and services for the purpose.
6.3 The system shall be able to verify the intrinsic validity of each ballot,
including:
8
The number of official ballots for the clustered precinct shall be equal to the number of registered voters in the
corresponding established precincts.
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6.3.1 the verification of security markings as configured;
6.3.2 the assignment of ballot (clustered precinct); and
6.3.3 the uniqueness of ballot.
6.4 The winning bidder shall provide all related equipment peripherals,
consumables, supplies and materials, and technical and administrative
support services that shall be needed for this purpose at no additional
cost to COMELEC.
7. The Ballot Printing Monitoring or Tracking System shall comply with the
following minimum requirements:
7.1 It shall use the same election data from the EMS as reference files, such
as, but not limited to:
7.1.1 List of established precincts and their corresponding clustering;
7.1.2 The number of registered voters per established and per clustered
precinct;
7.1.3 List of cities/municipalities, post/country, provinces and regions;
7.1.4 List of councilor districts, legislative districts, and provincial districts

(including BARMM); and
7.1.5 Number of ballots to be printed per type of ballots.
7.2 It shall allow the record management of the status of ballots generation,
together with the corresponding number of ballots, for each clustered
precincts, such as, but not limited to:
7.2.1 printed,
7.2.2 verified,
7.2.3 on-hold, with corresponding reason for being put on hold,
7.2.4 reprinted, with corresponding reason for reprinting, and
7.2.5 forwarded to specific election working committee, such as:
7.2.5.1 To Packing and Shipping Committee (PSC);
7.2.5.2 To Technology Group for testing purposes (PRELAT, field

test, mock elections);
7.2.5.3 To Training Group;
7.2.5.4 To Public Demo Group; and
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7.2.5.5 To Technical Evaluation Committee (for ICE).
7.3 Generate statistical reports, with listing, on the following:
7.3.1 Number of precincts printed;
7.3.1.1 With summary report (numbers and percentages

completed) per ballot face, city/municipality, province,
region for BARMM, post/country).
7.3.2 Number of precincts verified;

completed) per ballot face, city/municipality, province,
region for BARMM, post/country;
7.3.3 Number of precincts on-hold or quarantined due to lacking ballot,

defect in ballot, etc.;

affected) per ballot face, city/municipality, province,
region, post/country);
7.3.4 Summary report on Number (with corresponding percentages) of

precincts printed, verified and on-hold;
7.4 The system shall be able to generate related statistical reports:
7.4.1 with specific listing of areas covered,
7.4.2 indicating the province, city/municipality, post/country, clustered

precinct, precinct ID, number of registered voters, number of valid
ballots scanned and invalid ballots scanned;
7.5 The winning bidder shall provide all related equipment peripherals,
consumables, supplies and materials, and technical and administrative
support services that shall be needed for this purpose at no additional
cost to COMELEC.
7.6 The winning bidder shall turn over this system, with proper documentation
on its use, management and administration, to COMELEC after the
duration of the Project.
7.6.1 The source code of the system, with proper documentation, shall
also be turned over at no additional cost to COMELEC.
7.6.2 The winning bidder shall allow COMELEC to freely use and modify
the system for use in future elections.
7.6.3 The winning bidder shall also turn over other software, including
OS and DBMS, and hardware that shall be used for this purpose at
no additional cost to COMELEC.
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8. The winning bidder shall provide the following related ballot printing support
services to COMELEC:
8.1 Provision of project management plan including on how the printing of

all ballot requirements shall be finished on time based on the schedule
indicated in the timelines, as well as how to reduce/mitigate the risks
involved in ballot printing:
8.1.1 All activities to be undertaken by the winning bidder, such as

planning, preparation, training, setting-up, execution, back-up,
closing and other related activities shall be observed and
approved by COMELEC.
8.1.2 All backup data containing ballot information, together with

CCTV/security camera footages, shall be turned over to
COMELEC at the end of the Project.
8.1.2.1 The data shall be turned over to COMELEC in a

removable storage device, with proper documentation
on its contents.
8.1.2.2 There shall be weekly turnover of CCTV footages to

COMELEC through the Printing Committee for proper
custody, or access to review of CCTV footages shall be
provided as needed, or when a review is warranted.
8.1.2.3 The data shall be made available in mySQL format and

shall be immediately readable by COMELEC for report
generation purposes.
8.2 Provision of detailed documentation in relation to the Project, such as,

but not limited to:
8.2.1 Technical specifications, and quantity of the ballot paper;
8.2.2 Technical specifications, and quantity of the ballot printer;
8.2.3 Technical specifications, quantity, and other requirements for the

ink and other consumables.
8.3 Provision of project management support to manage the entire ballot

printing process and be specifically responsible for the following, among
other tasks:
8.3.1 overseeing and implementing the Ballot Printing Plan including a

Risk Management Plan on ballot printing;
8.3.2 coordinating with the COMELEC Printing Committee on all related

aspects of the Project;
8.3.3 monitoring the progress and status of the ballot printing;
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8.3.4 resolution of all printing-related problems and timely reporting of

the same;
8.3.5 securing the ballot printing facility and ensuring proper

implementation of the Data Privacy Act policies of the
government.
8.4 Provision of personnel in the printing and verification of ballots who shall
be specifically responsible for the following, among other tasks:
8.4.1 repair and troubleshooting of ballot printers and other related

equipment that shall be provided by the winning bidder;
8.4.2 installation, setting up and testing of ballot printing equipment,

including servers and all workstations;
8.4.3 training of ballot printing equipment operators, other support

personnel and Printing Committee supervisors;
8.4.4 identification and resolution of errors that shall be found in the

ballot verification procedure;
8.4.5 operation of the ballot printing and ballot verification equipment.
8.5 Provision of servers, workstations, CCTV/security cameras, and other

related consumables, supplies and materials:
8.5.1 The technical support personnel to maintain and operate said

equipment shall also be provided by the winning bidder at no
additional cost to COMELEC.
9. All related requirements by the ballot printing services which are needed to
make it fully operational during the entire duration of the printing process shall
be included in the proposal/offer, including the software and hardware,
back-up power supply, security devices such as CCTV cameras, other
equipment and consumables.
10. All supplies, materials, consumables, ballot papers that are not used shall be
turned-over at no additional cost to the COMELEC.
11. For the submission of bids, the bidder shall provide samples of all offered
equipment, supplies and materials, as far as practicable. Compliance to the
requirements by the submitted samples shall be supported by the submission of
detailed product documentation and other related documents to verify the
same.
11.1 In lieu of an on-site demo version of the proposed equipment, the bidder
may opt to present a similar installation of the equipment from a previous
contract of the participating bidder and may be used as product demo
to the COMELEC. For this purpose, the bidder shall submit a written
certification from the concerned company of its willingness to present its
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equipment to COMELEC in an operational environment and to answer

related questions on the same.
11.2 With regard to an offered software application, a demo version shall be

presented to the SBAC for evaluation or post-qualification purposes. The
demo system shall be able to show availability and working functionality of
all of the minimum systems specifications as required by COMELEC.
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COMPONENT 3: BALLOT BOXES
The winning bidder shall comply with the following minimum requirements for ballot
boxes, and all other related goods and services for the purpose.
1. The ballot boxes shall be fully compatible with the ACM.
2. The ballot boxes shall comply with the following minimum security requirements:
2.1. The material of the ballot box shall be such that voted ballots that are
being deposited therein shall be visible from the outside as falling into it.
2.2. The material of the ballot box shall be such that the marks on the cast
ballots shall not be seen from the outside.
2.3. The ballot boxes shall have three (3) slots for the placement of one (1)
security padlock each to be separately supplied by COMELEC.
2.4. The design of the ballot box shall be such that there shall be no crack or
split in the body and in the cover that may be used for getting access to
the ballots inside it.
2.5. The design of the closed ballot box shall protect its contents from water
spill coming from rain or other sources.
3. The design of the ballot box shall include a small bin for the voter’s receipt
compartment.
4. The design of the ballot boxes shall be such that:
4.1. The above-mentioned security requirements are complied with;
4.2. Each has a detachable cover from the body;
4.3. The cover shall have a locking mechanism to lock it to its body;
4.4. There shall be a mechanism to seal the ballot entry point on the ballot box
cover when the ACM is not mounted on top of it;
4.5. The ACM can be locked in place without slipping accidentally when
placed on top of it;
4.6. Each can hold up to 1,000 pieces of ballots and the voter receipt
compartment can hold 1,000 voter’s receipt;
4.6.1 The voter receipt compartment shall form part of the ballot box.
4.7. At least ten (10) pieces can be stacked when empty and without cover;
4.8. Five (5) pieces can be stacked when with contents and with cover, with
the padlocks placed without breaking;
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4.9. The body shall bear the logo or name of the COMELEC and shall be readily
visible from the outside;
4.10. Each can be reused for at least three (3) elections; and
4.11. Each shall survive a drop test from a height of 30.0 cm with or without
contents.
5. The ballot boxes shall be considered COMELEC Property after e-Day.
6. The bidder shall provide for a prototype of the ballot box during the submission
of bids.
6.1. The bidder shall submit the design and specifications of the proposed
ballot box, taking into consideration the existing guidelines on provision of
physical security.
6.2. The bidder shall submit the customizable features in the design of the
ballot box.
6.3. The final design of the ballot box for use on e-Day shall be subject to the
approval of COMELEC.
7. The winning bidder shall provide the number of ballot boxes based on the
allocation requirement of the COMELEC.
8. The winning bidder shall deliver the ballot boxes at the place to be designated
by the COMELEC, based on timelines.
COMPONENT 4. TRAINING
Training requirement shall include the following:
1. A COMELEC approved training program for executives;
2. An extensive training or transfer of technology. The training shall be in two (2)

stages (1 – before the customization of systems, for testing and preparation of
customization requirements and 2 – using the final customized system). The
training shall address, but shall not be limited to, the following topics:
2.1. Installation and configuration of systems (EMS, ACM, ballot printing) from
bare metal;
2.2. Generation of election configuration for ACM and ballot faces;
2.3. Installation of election configuration in ACM;
2.4. Operation and administration of all provided applications and third party
systems;
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2.5. Format or template of ACM file output input to CCS and Central Server and
CCS output input to next level CCS and Central Server;
2.6. Repair, troubleshooting, tuning up and maintenance of hardware and

software;
2.7. Designing, printing and reformatting ballot faces and all election reports;
2.8. Safeguards to prevent and detect tampering or theft;
2.9. Critical system errors;
2.10. Security and intrusion prevention and detection systems; and
2.11. Contingency plan.
3. A training for trainers, certifiers and NTSC/Command Center supervisors and

agents, which shall include:
3.1. Setting up and testing the machines, and components thereof;
3.2. Proper operation and security of the machines from start to finish;
3.3. Troubleshooting methods to quickly identify and resolve problems.
4. Training programs for the EBs and Random Manual Audit team subject to
COMELEC approval;
5. Training for the Technical Support;
6. Training for the 1st and 2nd levels of NTSC Operators;
7. Re-training of COMELEC trainers, DOST Certifiers, NTSC/Command Center

supervisors and agents and technical support in case of substantial changes in
the system;
8. Training materials (such as but not limited to manuals, videos, and powerpoint
presentations) should be submitted to and approved by COMELEC prior to
printing and reproduction;
9. All training ballots, consumables, manuals and training materials should be

provided by the winning bidder; and
10. The winning bidder shall provide for replacement or additional manuals when
required by the COMELEC.
COMPONENT 5: TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Aside from the technical support requirements in all testing activities (hardware
acceptance test, laboratory test, field test, mock election, reverse logistics), training,
machine public demonstration, election day configuration and Pre-LAT, printing and
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verification of ballots, systems certification, local source code review and data
centers, the winning bidder shall also provide the needed ACM and CCS technical
support for FTS and e-Day.
For this purpose, the winning bidder shall provide technical support in every voting
center during FTS until e-Day with a ratio of one ACM technician in every five (5)
clustered precinct and one CCS technician in every canvassing center. For this
purpose e-Day shall include the days following election day until all the results in the
said voting center has been transmitted or the canvassing board has proclaimed the
winning candidate.
The winning bidder shall provide the sufficient number of qualified Technical Support
personnel to man the technical hotlines and to give solution/s to the reported
problems at the National Technical Support Center. Aside from the requirement of
Head, Technical Support who shall supervise his team, the following are the
requirements for all levels of technical support required for FTS and e-Day:
LEVEL OF TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS SCHEDULE

SUPPORT
• With at least 2 years May 6, 2025 -May

Second-level technical
extensive training on the 11, 2025
staff, who shall address
proposed system; • at least 5
all technical issues
• College-graduate; technical support
which cannot be
• Good communication (TS)
solved by the first level
and listening skills in English • 8:00 am to 5pm
of technical support.
and Filipino;
• Ability to speak clearly and • Monday to
concisely over the Sunday
telephone;
• Ability to interpret and give May 12 to May 14,
both verbal and written 2025
instructions; and
• Must be detail-oriented. • At least 10 TS per
• With at least five (5) years shift
Third-level technical • 24 hours (2-shifts)
experience in using the
staff, who shall address
proposed AES
all technical issues May 15 to 22, 2025
components or
which cannot be
subsystems; • at least 5 TS
solved by all levels of
• With extensive training on
technical support.
the proposed system; • 8:00 am to 5pm
• Can communicate
fluently in English and • Monday to Friday
Filipino;
• Performs well under stress
or pressure; and
• Medically certified to be
physically fit.
May 6, 2025 -May
Voting center • At least high school
11, 2025
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technicians graduate
• 8:00 am to 5pm
• Can speak the dialect
of the voting center • Monday to
location Sunday
• Can communicate in
tagalog and English May 12 to May 14,
• IT-capable 2025
• Performs well under
stress or pressure; and • 5:00 am to 12 mn
• Medically certified to or until the voting
be physically fit. is not completed
1. Two (2) months before e-Day, the winning bidder shall provide for procedures
or set of rules to be followed at the NTSC by the technical support, including
documentation on the possible systems problems that may encounter and the
possible solutions to the problems.
2. The winning bidder shall submit resume of all levels of Technical Support which
shall be approved by COMELEC two (2) months before its operation.
3. All Technical Support and personnel at the NTSC shall sign a Non-Disclosure
Agreement (NDA) before the start of NTSC operation.
4. Verified reports of incorrect handling or answering of queries shall be charged

as penalties to the winning bidder.
5. All activities to be undertaken by the winning bidder at the NTSC, such as

planning, preparation, training, setting-up, execution, back-up, closing and
other related activities shall be coordinated and approved by COMELEC.
6. The winning bidder, through COMELEC, shall coordinate with the NTSC
provider on the requirements for space, system, data, reporting, coordination
and other related requirements.
7. The winning bidder shall provide coordinators with field of specialization on all
items above and shall submit proof of specialization such as resume,
certification of expertise, certification of number of years of experience.
8. Provide support and logistics to each team of the COMELEC PMO.
9. Submit report as required by COMELEC PMO timelines. `
10. Aside from the technical skills qualifications, the technical support shall have
the following qualifications:
10.1 Is of good moral character;
10.2 Has never been convicted of any election offense or any other crime
punishable by more than six (6) months of imprisonment;
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10.3 Has no pending case against him filed in COMELEC/court for any
election offense; and
10.4 Not related within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to
any candidate or to the partylist nominees.
11 The winning bidder shall provide for the Technical Hub (ACM Repair and
Replacement Hubs) during Final Testing and Sealing and Election-day with the
following requirements:
11.1 The Technical hub shall be in all offices of the Provincial Election Supervisor.
11.2 The winning bidder shall provide for at least two (2) qualified technician
who can troubleshoot and repair the defective VCM.
11.3 The winning bidder shall provide for the technicians’ tools and replacement
parts, which shall be at least 5% of the ACMs allocated in the province.
11.4 The technicians shall be under the supervision of the Provincial Election
Supervisor.
COMPONENT 6. OTHER REQUIREMENTS
A. TEC Certification through an International Certification Entity
1. The Provider shall allow the COMELEC to subject its AES to an independent
certification process by the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) through an
International Certification Entity, as selected by the COMELEC.
1.1 The Provider shall not dictate the terms of the TEC Certification process but shall
abide by the rules and regulations to be set by the TEC and the ICE for the
purpose.
1.2 The Provider shall not communicate with the ICE directly with regard to the
Certification testing procedure aside from coordinating the shipment of
hardware and software requirements, including the supplies and materials.
2. The Provider shall ensure that its AES comply with applicable ISO standards for
software development and information systems security, and shall provide all
necessary decoumentaty proof of compliance to the ICE through the TEC.
3. The Provider shall provide all hardware and software requirements, including all
other related supplies and materials, to be used by the TEC and ICE in the
certification process at no additional cost to the COMELEC.
3.1 The Provider shall provide a copy of its Technical Data Package (TDP) to the TEC
and the ICE for the purpose, including all other related documentations to be
required by the same for the purpose.
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3.2 The Provider shall provide all source codes of its AES to the ICE through the TEC
for review purposes, including all other related documentations to be required
by the same for the purpose.
3.2.1 The Provider may provide automated tools for source code review to
the ICE through the TEC at no additional cost to COMELEC.
3.3 The Provider shall provide a copy of its operating systems and all other third party
applications and scripts to the ICE through the TEC for software audit purposes,
including all other related documentations to be required by the same for the
purpose.
3.4 The Provider shall comply with all requirements by the ICE through the TEC to
ensure that the AES shall pass the Certification process, pursuant to the
requirements of RA 9369.
4. The Provider shall ship all requirements by the TEC and ICE to and from the test
locations.
5. The Provider shall shoulder the expenses for the inspection of the lab facilities and
test sites of the ICE by the TEC members and COMELEC Committee representatives.
B. Local Source Code Review
1. The Provider shall allow the conduct of a local source code review (LSCR) to the
source code of its AES to local reviewers, who shall be authorized by the
COMELEC, subject to controls to be set by the COMELEC.
2. The conduct of the LSCR shall commence fifteen (15) days after the issuance of
the Notice to Proceed and shall last for eight (8) months.
3. The Provider shall provide subject matter experts and technical support personnel
to the conduct of the LSCR at no additional cost to COMELEC.
4. The Provider shall provide all requirements to the conduct of the LSCR, such as but
not limited to the venue, hardware and software requirements, supplies and
materials.
5. The Provider shall provide the following to the LSCR reviewers to facilitate the
review experience and for their better understanding of its AES source codes:
5.1 Automated review tools
5.2 technical background information
5.3 technical documentations and other related reference manuals
67 | P a g e
5.4 system demonstrations and simulations
6. The Provider shall allow the conduct of simulated test runs of the AES source codes
in operation mode.
6.1 The Provider shall provide all hardware, software and supplies and materials
requirements to the LSCR reviewers.
6.2 The Provider shall demonstrate to the LSCR reviewers that the AES under
demonstration is the same as the source code under review.
6.3 The Provider shall include demonstrations to the LSCR reviewers to show the
security, accuracy and proper operation of the AES under review.
7. The Provider shall allow the video recording of the LSCR sessions for
documentation purposes.
7.1 The Provider shall provide a copy of all LSCR video recording footages to
COMELEC for its own review and documentation at no additional cost.
7.2 Assist in recommending acceptance and payment for the services or
outputs, and/or the position of penalties where applicable.
2025 NATIONAL AND LOCAL ELECTIONS
IMPLEMENTATION CALENDAR
ACTIVITY START END
1 Procurement until Issuance of NTP June 2023 February 2024
Delivery of Machines, Peripherals and December

2 August 2024
Consumables 2024
3 Delivery of Base Source Codes February 2024 February 2024
4 Customization of the System February 2024 August 2024

September
5 Delivery of Final System August 2024
2024
September
6 Laboratory Test of all Systems February 2024
2024
6.1 Voting and Counting System
6.2 Canvassing System

7 TEC Certification August 2024 February 2025
September
7.1 Source Code Review August 2024
2024
68 | P a g e
7.2 AES Software Audit

7.3 Final Trusted Build for EMS, ACM and November
CCS 2024
7.4 Issuance of TEC Certification February 2025
8 Field Test October 2024

Mock Elections using ICE (offsite)
trusted-build systems (Voting, counting, November
9
canvassing Systems, Ballots, & 2024
Consumables)
Installation of the EMS and Loading of December December
15
electoral data 2024 2024
December
18 Trainings April 2025
2024
18.1 Training of Executives
18.2 Training of Trainors

18.3 Training of EBs/SBEIs and Tech
Support/RMAT Members/ DOST
Certification
18.4 BOC/SBOC Training
18.5 Refresher Training

Conduct public demonstration using December
19 April 2025
machines (Voter Education) 2024
Creation of ACM and CCS
22 January 2025 April 2025
configuration, ballot face, etc.
23 Printing of FTS and Official Ballots January 2025 April 2025
Pre-LAT (Pre-Logic Accuracy Test) of
24 ACMs, CCS, system, ballot and January 2025 April 2025
configuration, End-to-end Test
25 Hiring of Technicians January 2025 March 2025
26 Deployment (Local and Overseas) February 2025 April 2025
26.1 Deployment of ACMs and CCS
26.2 Delivery of Official Ballots, and

Other Accountable Forms & Supplies
Final testing and sealing (FTS) including
29 May 2025
transmission
30 Election Day with RMA May 2025
Count precinct & proclaim
31 May 2025
city/municipal winners
69 | P a g e
32 Canvass results & proclaim winners May 2025

December
33 Post election activities June 2025
2025
33.1 Back-up of Servers and storage
devices for ACM and CCS
33.2 Reverse Logistics
33.3 Submission of all back-up files

(configuration and election results)
33.4 Turn-over of all storage devices,
all consumables used
33.5. Submission of Post Election
Report
May 9, 2025 National and Local Elections

Budget for Lease with Option to Purchase of New AES Machines
Particulars Quantity Requirement Total Cost
Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

Machine/Direct Recording Electronic 126,127
(DRE)
CCS Software, Laptop and Printer with 3
2,200
toners
Ballot Paper and Ballot Printing
Ballot Box 116,127
External Battery 116,127
ACM and CCS Technical Support
International Certification and Local Source Code Review
GRAND TOTAL
70 | P a g e

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2025 National and Local Elections

2025 NLE Automation Committee

TITLE PAGE NO.

CHAPTER I – GENERAL OBJECTIVE 5

CHAPTER III – PROJECT SCOPE 7

CHAPTER IV – MINIMUM TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS 7

A. Election Management Systems 7

B. Automated Counting Machine (ACM) 20

C. Consolidation and Canvassing System 33

COMPONENT 2: BALLOT PRINTING SERVICES 51

COMPONENT 3: BALLOT BOXES 60

COMPONENT 5: TECHNICAL SUPPORT 62

COMPONENT 6: OTHER REQUIREMENTS 65

A. TEC Certification through an International Certification Entity 65

B. Local Source Code Review 66

A. Requirements to the Bidders/Winning Bidder

B. Testing Requirements to the Bidders/Winning Bidder

D. Related Laws (Included in the CD)

D-1. Republic Act 8436

E. Election Statistics (Included in the CD)

E-1. National Summary by Region

F. Districting (Included in the CD)

G. Number of Seats per Elective Position (Included in the CD)

H. Sample Report Formats (Included in the CD)

I. Financial Proposal Templates (Also included in the CD)

J. Systems Checklist (Also included in the CD)

K. Jurisdictions (Included in the CD)

K-1. List of Regions

L. Sample Data Files in MySQL and CSV

M. Sample Reports and Statistics

N. Requirements of Ballots, Machines, Supplies and Materials for Each Activity

O. Procedure on Post-Qualifiaction Evaluation

CHAPTER I. GENERAL OBJECTIVE

CHAPTER II. INTENT

2. Provides for 126,127 units of a secure, accurate precinct-based upgraded

a. 116,127 ballot boxes and for VVPAT boxes;

b. 71,998,709 estimated number of ballots for local and overseas voters,

c. Provides for a built-in secure automated precinct results system using

d. Provides for a built-in automated and immutable3 system auditability in

3. Provides for a consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) to be deployed to

a. 1,634 city/municipal CCS

e. 2 National CCS (for Congress and Comelec)

4. Is designed to be easy to understand, use, operate, implement and manage;

6. Sufficient number of qualified technical support personnel in all testing activities

8. Can be used in different elections such as National and Local Elections,

CHAPTER III. PROJECT SCOPE

CHAPTER IV. MINIMUM TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

A. Election Management System (EMS)

A.1. The following shall be checked during the post qualification:

1. The EMS shall have the following general capabilities:

1.2 The EMS shall have pre-election data management as a general

election purposes, including data import of election data files from

1.5 The EMS shall have machine configuration management as a general

1.5.1 Turning on or off certain ACM functionalities such as vote review

1.5.2 Setting the ballot mark, number of copies of reports (Election

4.1 The EMS shall enable COMELEC assigned System Admistrator to

4.8.1 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage data on EB

4.8.2 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage data on EB members’

4.8.3 The EMS shall enable COMELEC to manage data on EB