SINCE ITS LAUNCH back in September 2023, the San Beda Electoral Board (ELBO) will again offer the Bedan community their new online voting platform, known as the BotoBedista Voting System (BBVS), for the 2024 Student Council (SC) General Elections. Reviewing the voting website, Ayrah Celline Asis and Kurt Andrei Catolico, ELBO’s Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, respectively, compared the old platform to the newly released voting website.
Earlier in the academic year, the College of Arts and Sciences’ (CAS) held a successful election for the First-Year Representative, as well as the second Special Presidential Election, under the ELBO’s new Electronic Voting System introduced in that period.
Having been reliant on Microsoft Forms in the previous years as the Bedan community’s voting platform during the pandemic, Asis explained that “the decision to implement a new voting system began before the start of the academic year 2023-2024” following ELBO’s deliberations by which “concerns were raised regarding the limitations of the Microsoft Forms platform” particularly its security and capacity.”
Moreover, Catolico further explained that Microsoft Forms, despite being a “functional tool for basic operations of polls and surveys,” lacked the “strict security features and server capacity required for a crucial electoral events of the magnitude akin to the upcoming General Elections,” adding also that the platform was “prone to crashing under high traffic loads, thereby possibly calling into question the integrity of the voting process.”
On that note, BBVS, formerly known as BedaVoice Voting System, was designed to “keep administrators from creating, modifying, or deleting voters’ data,” thus, giving “assurance of the safety and upright” election.
ELBO collaborated with the Bedan Information Technology Society (BITS) in the reinforcement of the website’s reliability by adding “multi-layered security measures” that “cannot be fully disclosed,” according to Catolico. However, some of its measures included protection against unauthorized logins with “hashed” passwords, the use of captcha, and an audit log to monitor every action within the system.
Furthermore, in addressing the current website’s optimal functionality and operation, Catolico assures that “even if a large number of students simultaneously use it…the system’s server infrastructure remains reliable and performs without fail,” basing it on the elections last September 2023.
Moving forward, ELBO, in close collaboration with BITS, continues to diligently work for the constant improvement of the BBVS. After all, it is a “continuous project,” as Catolico frequently reminds the Board.
In preparation for this year’s conduct of elections, Catolico assured the Bedan community that both the Board and BITS will be taking the voting system “very seriously and are constantly evaluating and updating our security protocols to ensure the safety and protection of every student’s data. We are also in close coordination with the University’s ICTC Department and IT professionals to seek further help in securing the system.”