ass usual  COMELEC is in a hurry to proclaim the alleged senator and partylist winners, never mind major major questions about that 7-hour blackout and that highly suspicious meet-me-room.

read gus lagman’s Can we trust automated elections? of april 24 2019.

Is it possible for the Comelec to rig the results of this automated elections? Of course! Is it possible for Smartmatic to rig the results of automated elections? Of course! I’m not saying that they did, nor that they will. All I’m saying is that it’s possible — easy, in fact — especially if done by insiders; and nobody will be the wiser, because the voters won’t know…and they won’t see. That nontransparency, in the context of elections, is of course totally unacceptable.

The transmission of the precinct results (election returns, or ER) to the board of canvassers was done electronically. As such, it was again a step that was not witnessed by the voters.

During the earlier meetings of the joint congressional oversight committee (JCOC), it was revealed that the data being transmitted first passes through what they refer to as the “meet me room,” where they are parked for a period before being deleted, which apparently is a violation of the election law, RA 9369. That law says that the election returns should go directly from the precincts to the city/municipal board of canvassers. In fact, there is no mention at all of a “meet me room” in the law. It was just a creation of the system provider — Smartmatic.

Even worse, the transmission of the data from municipal to provincial and from provincial to national canvassing apparently also passes through the “meet me room.” If there is any intention of rigging the results, that “room” seems to be the most convenient place to do it.

read amelia hc ylagan’s  A steamy ‘Meet-me-room’

In “Future Perfect”, Tony Velasquez’ technology talk show, he interviewed Dr. Nelson Celis, spokesperson of Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch) … on glitches in the May 13 fully automated midterm elections (ABS-CBN May 15 2019). Celis said the “meet-me-room” was an unauthorized intervention that transgressed the law (Omnibus Election Code/ Republic Act No. 9369, which amended the Automated Election Law). These MMRs host undeclared servers and intercept data from the vote counting machines to the Commission on Election servers, he said. The VCMs should be directly sending election returns direct to the municipal board of canvassers. He added that as early as March, the Senate President in two privilege speeches identified irregularities, one of which is the queuing server, and the early transmissions” (Ibid.).

not surprisingly the senate prez is silent on the matter.  even less surprisingly COMELEC’s james jimenez splits hairs, quibbles, about it.  read Jimenez denies existence of ‘meet-me-room,’ admits managing VCM’s transmission of votes 

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Spokesman James Jimenez on Thursday denied the existence of a “meet-me-room” in the Automated Election System (AES) as alleged by critics.

“The meet-me-room narrative has it that this is a physical room or a server, either of the two. There is no such thing as a separate server as a meet-me-room,” he said in a press briefing at the PICC, Thursday.

The Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch) claimed that a “meet-me-room” has already been in place since the 2016 elections, which is an undeclared queuing server that may open windows for irregularities in the release of the election results.

But Jimenez said their critic might be referring to the transmission gateway router that is used in the AES that allows the Comelec to properly manage the results being transmitted by the vote counting machines (VCMs).

“Basically, what that means is that it is not a separate server. It is simply an arrangement in the program that allows us to play traffic cop to the incoming transmissions,” he said.

“It is a way of making sure that the flow ng (of) data coming for the field, coming from the VCMs into the transparency server, is properly managed,” added Jimenez.

there we go.  COMELEC played traffic cop to the incoming transmissions.  that could mean a lot of things, and most relevant here and now would be:  may pinadaan, pinalampas, at binilang, AT may pinigil, hinarang, at hindi binilang.  correct me if i’m wrong, COMELEC, and prove it!

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Comelec’s eerie silence by Gus Lagman 10july
Lost credibility by Ninez Cacho-Olivares
Slick operators by The Daily Tribune
Who owns and runs this ‘meet-me’ room? by Marichu A. Villanueva