May 10, 2010 – First Automated National Election. My FIRST voting experience.

We went to the school where our precinct is at around ten in the morning just to be greeted by the long unorganized lines and of course, the burning heat. Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) said that the temperature will be higher than what we felt the day before.

Luckily, we already know our clustered precinct (CP) numbers, at least the information that we got for my CP is right. For a little background, the Commission on Elections (ComElec) grouped around five to seven precincts into a CP. So if we have around 300 registered voters in a precinct, then there will be 1500 voters in a single CP. I believe that they’ve done this because of the lack of machines, and this scheme is the reason why some of the voters chose to go home and not to vote.

Going back, I and my father lined to get a voter number. Though I don’t know if the line where I belong is the real line or just some ’singit’ line, but that doesn’t matter ’cause people started to push each other when the ComElec guy started giving numbers. People started shouting, pushing each other, extending our hands to have that precious number. And we did this under the scorching heat of the sun, which I think is another reason why people easily get mad.

Summing it up, we got our numbers and we found out that the numbers are not arranged properly. Two of my friends got higher numbers than my number even though they had it first. By the way, I got the number two for that batch. Lucky me, eh? At first, the numbers don’t matter since the authorities are not calling them out. The system was like you get a number, then fall in line again. That annoys some of the voters, including me. What’s the use of the numbers if you’ll not gonna use it?!

Then, after waiting around an hour, a concerned citizen took the responsibility to arrange the line. He said that starting with our batch, we’ll gonna follow the numbers given to us. That’s a relief since I will be called first, and I think it’s also a relief to the others since they can go somewhere else and do what they want to do without worrying that they’ll need to fall in line again.

When it’s my turn, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) just asked my name and my precinct number. She looked for my name in the list then asked me to sign and to put my thumb mark on the spaces provided. The weird thing is that she did not asked for any ID that will verify that I’m the one in the list. She didn’t even compare my picture in the list to my face. That’s a bit scary because other people might vote using other names, a famous election fraud in our country.

So I got my ballot and carefully shaded the ovals beside the names of the candidates that I want. My hand was shaking while I’m doing it. I also noticed that the ink can be seen at the back of the page where the local candidates are placed. I got nervous that the machine might not read my ballot. And it really did not read my ballot… for the first try. Apparently, it read my vote on the second try and the BEI put the indelible ink which is a bit irritating every time I look at it.

After voting I went to the other school where the precinct of my sister is. Worse condition. Long lines under the scorching heat of the sun. Useless numbers. Fewer chairs for the voters. My sister got there at around eleven in the morning. At around three in the afternoon, she casted her vote and we ate our lunch.

But wait! I also noticed that there are lots of flyers around the polling precincts which is prohibited by law! Reports of vote buying can be heard from the media every now and then. If we really wanted to change, let’s start it by doing the right things, simple as it may seem. I’m not giving up for this country, and I hope I’ll not eat those words in the future. I’ll accept whatever the results of this election and I’ll do what I can and what I should to make this country rise from its current condition.

God Bless the Philippines!

Peace, love, and success, RIX. ^_^