Tinsay explained that a fully automated voting system will automate the election process from voting, to the counting of votes, all the way to the canvassing of the votes.

On the other hand, a computer-assisted manual voting system would have the voting and counting of votes still done manually, but where, for the canvassing stage, the votes counted in the precincts would be electronically transmitted to the Comelec with the use of electronic devices.

"There are various proposals for capturing the results of the manual voting and transmitting the data electronically. These include scanning, picture-taking, SMS (or text messaging) or by using a low-cost data capturing device that you can beam into the computer and create an election report and transmit the encoded data," Tinsay said.

Senate Bill No. 2231

The PCS official said the full automation voting system, if implemented, would cover 20 percent of the voting precincts in certain pilot areas to be decided by Congress and the Senate. The computerized assisted manual voting system, meanwhile, would cover 80 percent of the voting precincts.