BOTONG ISKO 2010: UP System-wide Online Mock Polls for Clean and Honest Elections. This aims to unite students and the whole UP community for a clean, transparent, and honest elections, and to find out which candidates are favored by the Iskolar ng Bayan in the upcoming elections. (An online petition for a clean and honest elections can also be found on this website.)

Online polls will start on March 18, Thursday, 8am until March 23, Wednesday, 5pm. Official results will be released on March 24, 12nn. Surveys and voter’s education will also be generated on this page after the online poll.

The online mock poll is as easy as 1, 2, 3. A student can login to Botong Isko Halalan Login (in any computer with an internet connection) using their student number as username and their lastname as password. They can browse from the list and vote their choice from President, Vice-President, Senators, and Partylist. The website will also feature the platforms and programs of the national candidates.

You can download the Botong Isko Manual here.

Pahayag ng USC Elections Technical Team hinggil sa mga balitang lumabas sa araw ng eleksyon sa UP Diliman

Una, nais namin linawin ang isyu tungkol sa pagiging late ng pagbubukas diumano ng mga presinto. Totoong nagkaroon ng pagkahuli ang pagbubukas ng ilang mga presinto dahil nagkaroon ng problema sa pagiimprenta ng mga password ng mga estudyante. Pero ang balitang mahigit dalawang oras naantala ang pagbubukas ng ilang presinto ay walang katotohanan dahil ang pinakahuli nang nabuksang presinto ay nasa 40 minuto lamang matapos ang alas otso ng umaga.

Ikalawa ay ang pagpapahinto ng pagboto sa buong unibersidad. Bandang alas-nueve y media ng umaga ay nahinto ang pagboto sa loob ng ilang minuto dahil ni-restart ang server na kinaroroonan ng Halalan (yung software). Ikatlo ay ang isyu sa CAL kung saan nagkaroon ng problema sa network. Naging dahilan ito upang maantala ang pagboto ng mga estudyante pero matapos malipat sa CAL Library ang presinto ay naipagpatuloy na ang botohan. Ito ay malinaw na problema sa network at hindi sa software.

Isa pang isyu na lumabas ay ang tungkol sa mga non-major. Hindi naimprenta ang listahan ng mga estudyanteng non-majors pero sila ay nakapaloob na sa sistema kung kaya’t sila ay maaring makaboto basta maipaalam lamang sa Technical Person na naka-assign sa bawat presinto.

Isa sa pinakamalaking isyung lumabas ay ang tungkol sa “glitch” diumano ng programa. Laman ng isang mensaheng teleteksto ang mga salitang ito:

“As you vote for less than 12 councilors only, tick that name and leave the others blank. Wag mag-aabstain, mavovoid votes niyo. Just let it be. Don’t tick abstain. May glitch ang system. Please pass.”

Nais naming linawin na hindi “glitch” ng sistema ang tungkol sa abstain. Ito ay function talaga ng sistema kung saan kapag pinili mo ang abstain ay hindi mo na nais bumoto para sa posisyong pinagbobotohan. Nabanggit naman namin sa mga public demo na ganito nga ang gamit ng abstain. Halimbawa nito ay kung hindi mo nais kumpletuhin ang 12 konsehal sa USC, maaari mong piliin kung ilan lamang ang nais mong iboto nang hindi pinipili ang abstain.

Maraming salamat sa pagsuporta sa Halalan. Sana’y nabigyan namin ng linaw ang mga agam-agam niyo hinggil sa ating eleksiyon.

- Halalan 2010, Technical Team

For more information regarding the computerized elections, please contact JP Bernardo at jp@jpbernardo.com.

The 10 steps:

1. Go to your designated voting precinct and show your UP ID and UP Registration Form (Form 5) to the attending poll clerk
2. Once confirmed that you are indeed a valid voter, the poll clerk will give you your password.
3. Wait for your turn, and approach an unoccupied voting station.
4. Your browser should display the log in page.
5. Log in using your Student Number and the password given by the poll clerk.

(Note: The password is case-sensitive).

6. After logging in, you should see the ballot form.
7. You may now vote by checking the check box/es opposite the candidates’ names, you may modify the ballot as much as you want at this step. Any change here is not yet recorded.
8. After carefully choosing your candidates, press, “Confirm ballot” button. Once this is pressed, a captcha will appear before you can confirm your votes.

(Note: The captcha is case-sensitive also)

9. After successfully inputting the captcha, your vote will be confirmed and you will be logged out.
10. If you try logging in again, you will see your confirmed ballot. You may not change this anymore.

Remember: February 24, 2010 8:00 AM onwards

- With your UP ID, and Form 5

Let’s practice our right! Go out and vote!

Apologies for those who will receive this more than once.
– The USC Elections 2010 Technical Team

I heard a month ago that the Styrofoam Ban in UP Diliman is already approved. So, I chose to eat lunch today, to see for myself if the food services in Shopping Center is following this rule already, and here’s what I saw :)

No more styrofoam.

Good Job!

A little knowledge about styrofoam why is it bad.

Well, little might you have known that Styrofoam cups don’t dissolve in the Earth eventually like other materials do. It just sits there. Useless. Taking up space. Therefore, it is negligent to the environment. You CAN recycle Styrofoam, like you can paper, but it is difficult to and takes a LONG time and is also hard to find someone who will actually do it. Styrofoam also lasts virtually forever, or at least much, much longer than we’ll live to be, vs. paper, where you can recycle it a lot easier and more and it will dissolve faster. This useless material ALSO contains CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons), which is very bad for the environment. In the end, Styrofoam is harmful to the Ozone. The Ozone, as you may know, is a form of oxygen containing three molecules (usually found in the stratosphere) and is responsible for filtering out much of the sun’s dangerous ultraviolet radiation – the stuff that we put on sunscreen for. See, if we use Styrofoam, slowly but surely, it ruins the Ozone layer. That means that we can get sunburn so much easier, which can lead to skin cancer and cataracts if you get too much of it. And sure, you can load yourself up with a lot more sunscreen, but if the Ozone layer gets to the point of degradation it’s headed to, that won’t do anything.

Most companies that sell their drinks in Styrofoam cups do it because it’s cheaper, but if that means hurting our children’s family in the future by the sun, which would you choose? [source]