National and Local Elections 2010

Three hundred voters per precinct is a manageable number to the poll staff as opposed to some 996 or so voters in one cluster last May 10, 2010. In the past, the flow of 300 voters coming in between 7AM and 3PM was smooth and barely required wait time for next voter. A precinct could seat more than five people with a very good distance from each other. The staff’s instructions were clear and structured. You knew where to proceed next. During the first automated election however, people were pushing and shoving like passengers to a jeepney not wanting to miss a ride. Although some did not appreciate that there were priority numbers given, others understood it was done to manage a crowd who all wanted to vote and go home as early as it was before. Once your number is called, you feel lucky that you are ahead of hundreds of others outside who are still waiting for their number to be called. The room where we voted was fully-packed with more or less 20 voters at the same time; you could smell the shoes of the next one who is filling in his ballot. A polling clerk’s attention was divided by the number of people she had to attend to all at once. She was about to place indelible ink to a registered voter’s finger when she hasn’t not voted yet but took the wrong line because instructions were not relayed to those who just came in. It was past 9pm for some of those who were patient to still cast their votes. Others who were assigned big numbers have either gone home and decided not to vote or lost their suffrage because when they came back, the polling place was already close. The PCOS machines were fewer than the number of ballot boxes before and must tally votes of a thousand to justify that it is cost-efficient. While there were PCOS that did not work, voters were reassured that the votes will be counted in using another working PCOS machine. What took months of counting took only a week to finish and declare national victors. Locally, like that of a mayoralty position, the automated count was fast and the winner was declared almost instantaneously.

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