Today I cast my vote.
How’d it go? Was the voting process smooth or aggravating? How long did you have to line up? Were you hassled or threatened? We want to hear about it. Please post your account in Comments. Thank you for voting.
JessicaRulestheUniverse.com
Personal blog of Jessica Zafra, author of The Collected Stories and the Twisted series
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 10th, 2010 at 08:30
Voted in Malolos City. Got there a little bit before 7 am. When I got in I was out after a few minutes. It was a breeze. PCOS machine worked. My indelible ink isn’t indelible at all after a generous application of acetone. Wonder if I can do a Luchi Cruz-Valdez….
May 10th, 2010 at 10:14
‘Want to vote badly but can’t due to legal constraints. But if I were allowed to do so, I would vote for the LABAN team. In my small hometown up mid-North, where cuz in law is a mayoralty candidate, vote buying is so rampant that it would be a miracle (or a BIG change of heart of the folks) for him to win.
Good luck P.I.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:46
It was smoother than I anticipated. It helped that the hubby and I already knew our precinct and cluster number before heading for the polling place, and that we were there before 7am. It was already humid at that time. We were done inside of an hour. The PPCRV volunteers were helpful and patient, I salute them.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:15
Dumating kami sa polling place 7:05 a.m., natapos kami 7:35 a.m. Buti na lang maaga kami kasi bandang 9 a.m., dagsa na ang botante. Bilib ako sa tiyaga ng Pinoy voter, andoon pa rin sa pila kahit mainit, mabagal, overcrowded at medyo nangangapa ang lahat sa bagong sistema. Sana magtagumpay ang election automation. It is the only way to go.Btw, this is in Pampanga.
May 10th, 2010 at 13:42
I was expecting to seat it out for many hours but surprisingly took me less than 10 minutes to look for the precinct, find my name on the list and vote… Handang-handa pa naman ako….but anyway, I salute the teachers and all those volunteers who were very helpful. Baguio City
May 10th, 2010 at 14:01
Just voted in Caloocan. It was hot ( of course ). The queue was long ( nothing new ). The only aberya was my ballot got caught in a paper jam. The woman next to me kept saying, ” Ay, invalid na yan.” I nearly gouged her eyes out. Good thing a Smartmatic tech support came to our rescue and restarted the PCOS machine.
May 10th, 2010 at 14:41
I got to the school at 9:30 a.m and was able to vote at 12:45 p.m. Mainit at mausok (yosi). Tempers flaring and temperatures rising talaga. Maraming sumisingit sa pila. I met a couple of neighbors who were not able to vote because for some unknown reason, their names were removed from the voters list. These are people who have voted consistently for the past, what, 20 years? One of them was about to burst into tears because she had participated fervently in one presidentiable’s campaign but was denied the right to vote.
May 10th, 2010 at 16:05
it was very smooth, before the precint, they were volunteers who will scan and identify your precint number as well as your actual number…….I just took time wiping the sweat from my forehead not to damage the form..it took me less that 10 minutes, and the ink was all over my finger, indeed indelible…
3 PCOs machines, one went down but they still continue and that started the long queue until 4pm…
Ibaan, Batangas…
May 10th, 2010 at 16:48
Voted in QC with my mother. Arrived at the precinct at 9am. The line was already long. Somebody pointed out that there is a senior citizen lane. My mother was done after 45 minutes. The line was organized and everybody was patient enough. The volunteers were very helpful. I waited for 3.5 hours before I was able to vote. I got stressed when I noticed that the marker that i used marked on the other side of the paper. Held my breath when I inserted the ballot in the PCOS machine. My ballot was not rejected =)
May 10th, 2010 at 18:04
my name was taken out of the master list. apparently i’ve been deactivated (checked on the comelec website: http://www.comelec.gov.ph/precinctfinder/precinctfinder.aspx).
i first registered for and voted in the 2004 elections. wasn’t able to vote in 2007 as i had chickenpox then, so i wonder what other election i missed for me to have been deactivated.
oh well.
May 10th, 2010 at 18:53
I voted early this morning and it was a breeze! I arrived at 6:30 AM at Rafael Palma school in Makati, found my precinct after 5 mins and waited for the voting to start. I was called to come in the precinct at around 7:10 and I was through by 7:15!
May 10th, 2010 at 19:20
IT WAS BAD. got there 7.45am, got to vote at around 12.30pm. the voting per se was quick but the queues for normal voters and the senior citizens/disabled people were a pain in the butt (and legs). it took the seniors an average of 20-30 minutes to vote thus the slowness. plus, ANDAMING SINGIT. haaaai. i hope next time would be better.
May 10th, 2010 at 19:38
Voted in Caloocan. Got in line at 9:30 AM. Got to vote at 2: 30 PM. My candidate is worth the heat, the long line, and the Xanadu music blaring at the covered court.
May 10th, 2010 at 19:38
My dad and I voted at the precinct set up inside the village. We were there at 9am and stayed for a good 30 mins all in all. There was a long queue at the other clustered precincts though. It was okay, could have been better.
May 10th, 2010 at 19:46
Average waiting time in our precinct: 3 hours. Time it took me to fill up my ballot: 5 minutes. Amazingly, 6 people in our household were able to vote at that rate. We maintained our patience because berserking there won’t help. Overall, our experience was better than other people’s. I feel very bad for them.
May 10th, 2010 at 19:55
I live in Davao City, by the way. I am very glad that the priority given to pregnant women, the elderly, and the differently-abled was implemented.
May 10th, 2010 at 20:51
voted in makati high school at around 2pm. out in 20 minutes. PCOS machine took my ballot in one go. was expecting long lines and lots of hassle, thank god there weren’t any.
May 10th, 2010 at 21:25
the precint was just across our house. woke up early, took a bath and breakfast and checked out the crowd from our window…. the like was loooooong. we waited until after lunch to vote. it was just less than 20mins. others took a long time to queue though. kawawa naman ang init pa naman.
while the machine was reading my ballot, i was worried na baka mag error or biglang hindi ma register ang votes ko for some reason. i know i smiled a wide one when it read : congratulations your votes have been registered!
May 11th, 2010 at 03:47
1:30 pm – started lining up at the precinct
3:30 pm – started to vote
3:35 pm – done voting. started off to queue in “payola” line
3:40 pm – listed name + precinct in “payola”.
5:00 pm – got 1k for all that trouble.
and that’s just the post-paid candidate. we got 2k+ as pre-paid from incumbent. BUT i still voted for the ones i’ve been planning way before the moolah came into the picture.
May 11th, 2010 at 06:36
I arrive at the precinct at 7:10 am and the line was long. It took 40 minutes before I was able to vote while it took me only 3 minutes to fill up my ballot. Felt excited and scared when i feed the ballot to the machine. I felt relieved and happy when the word “congratulations” appeared on the screen. I was out of the precinct at 8:00 am.
I think the COMELEC needs to improve the voter verification process as it was the cause of delay in most precincts. Testing and sealing of machines should also be done at an earlier time and not three days before Election Day. Crowd management should also be improved.
Generally, I think the elections went well despite the glitches. It could have been better. It was not pretty but we did it. Hopefully, we will be more prepared in future elections. Sorry to disappoint the doom sayers. That’s what you get when you choose to whine and throw tantrums instead of being helpful and doing something about it. Beeh
I would like to thank all the teachers who served as BEI for their commitment and service to make this elections credible. More importantly, congratulations to all Filipinos who were determined to exercise their right to vote against all odds. Mabuhay ang sambayang Pilipino!
May 11th, 2010 at 07:17
i almost took part in a protest last night in our precinct. my husband and i went there at 3 pm and were given priority #s 753-754. they were still serving #300+. so we went home since our house is just a stone’s throw away and figured that since it took about 20 minutes for them to serve 10 voters, we would probably be able to vote by 6-7 pm. we went back at 7pm, and they were still serving #600+. a teacher assigned to supervise the line called out #s 650-700 to get into the queue so we just remained seated on the benches nearby. however, when 8pm arrived, we opted to join the line but when we reached the table, the teachers told us they would not allow us to vote since we had not signed up. apparently, the teacher supervising the line asked everyone to sign & we were not able to hear her. there were about 20 of us left, and we argued with them that it was unfair that they had to change their rule in the last minute. we threatened them we’d protest & make a complaint so they eventually relented. we finished casting our votes at 8:58 pm.
May 11th, 2010 at 07:28
btw, i’m from cagayan de oro
May 11th, 2010 at 07:44
Me and family arrived a little before 7:00am. Precint opened 15 minutes past 7am. Voting process was a breeze. Got home before 8am.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:39
I’m from Makati but I went home to QC to cast my vote. Casting the vote was the easy part, it was just like a college entrance exam. It only took me less than 15 minutes to shade the circle beside the name of the candidates, insert the balot inside the PCOS machine, put my thumb mark before my name and sign and then put indelible ink on my finger. The difficult part was the waiting part to get inside the precint. It was like a rock concert, kulang na lang may magstage dive kasi may mosh pit na.
May 11th, 2010 at 12:18
Was not able to vote because I was not on the list, even though I have a voters’ ID. Like kurt, I registered and voted in 2004 but was not able to do so in 2007. After announcing the new President, will march to COMELEC and register to make sure I will be able to vote for the next elections.
My precinct is in Novaliches, QC, and there were three (or four) PCOS machines for 4,000++ voters. Perhaps COMELEC may consider placing the PCOS machines and have the voters vote in air-conditioned rooms. There could also be a separate area (not air-conditioned) where the voters can check their names, verify their precinct numbers and wait for their turn to vote. Finally, I agree to the idea that senior citizens vote on an earlier date. Yun lamang.
May 11th, 2010 at 15:12
I went to Cabanatuan City to vote. I decided to go to the precinct in late afternoon to avoid the crowd, and my! voting was a breeze even if the PCOS machine at my polling station overheated. Voting was over in less than 10 minutes.
May 14th, 2010 at 16:55
The elections this year was a drab compared to the manual casting of polls hehehe by the way, it was my first time to vote hehehe
May 15th, 2010 at 09:26
i arrived at the precinct a few minutes before noon and finished voting before 1pm. guess i just got lucky. didn’t have to endure all election hassles.