Some Tips To The Polls

This is going to be a long weekend.

Look for your name on the list outside the precinct

The Barangay Elections is on Monday and it was declared a holiday.  Please don't ignore your right and your duty to vote.  When I was an OFW in Dubai, I took the effort to take a leave for a day just to go to the Philippine Consulate to register myself as an absentee voter.  You just don't know how I felt when I finally got my registration application.  But sad to say, my medical condition when I got here before the elections did not make me well enough to settle the transfer. These elections, I felt like something was stripped off me because I didn't get to do my right and duty.

But anyway, I know that going to the polls is really a pain.  So, I want to give some tips to make it a little easier. Last May 2010, my dad and sister was just as excited to vote (as always) that we were actually asking those candidates who went 'house-to-house' to leave a copy of their list.  I hope the following tips will make it half as easy for you, the way it did make it half as easy for us.  Us, because I went with them so that I could have at least a feel of the first automated elections.

• Prepare a list of your candidates.  And with three days to go, get them ready by now.
• If you can go online, you can easily find which precinct you are supposed to go by visiting the COMELEC'S ONLINE PRECINCT FINDER.  All you have to do is fill the form with your complete name and date of birth.  Note down the school and precinct number at the bottom of your list of candidates.  This really made it easy for my dad and sister.
• Vote early.  We were there at the precinct before 7:00 am and we were done before 8:00.  It took us less than an hour.
• Once you get to the school, there is a table (at least there was last May 2010) just near the entrance.  You can ask these volunteers where you can find your precinct (the one that you found at the Comelec website).
• Once you located your precinct, there is supposed to be a list there where you have to look for your name and the number that corresponds with your name.  Take note of the number because the poll officer will ask for this and this makes her whole job easier and your time shorter in finding your name.  This is where you are supposed to get your thumb mark before and after voting.
• Just in case you don't know, there is a special line for senior citizens, persons with disability and pregnant women.  This is according to COMELEC Resolution 10-0326.  You can leave your mom and dads there or you can go with him inside if he's vision is not that good enough.

Comelec Resolution 10-0326

That's it!  Well, last May, we didn't have to bring any pens because we used the one provided.  But I guess, it won't hurt if you bring your own to make it a little faster.  Remember, these poll officers are our honorable teachers.  So, please let's help make their jobs easier for them and this, in turn, will make our voting a lot faster.