My Election 2013 Experience

Please forgive me for taking a photo without cutting my nails first. Katams e.

When I woke up this morning, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to vote. I didn't want to go through the hassle plus I knew that whoever I voted for most probably won't win (Hello, Gibo Teodoro). As the day wore on, though, I keep on having this nagging feeling that I SHOULD be voting. Maybe it's the righteous person in me (yes, I have a righteous alter ego). I slept the feeling off, though. But when I woke up and realized that I still had less than an hour to vote, I dragged my brother to the precinct. It took me a total of 5 minutes to vote. By the time we got there, it was almost 6:30pm so there literally weren't any lines.

To those who want to judge me for my choices, here are the candidates that I voted for (in no particular order):

• Teddy Casino
• Riza Hontiveros
• Richard "#ipasoksidick" Gordon
• Chiz Escudero
• Ed Hagedorn
• Ramon Magsaysay Jr.

For the partylist, I voted for Ladlad like I did back in 2010.

Anyway, here are some of the observations I had in our precinct (119A, Mercedes Exec. Vill. Clubhouse) this time around:

1. Police assistance desk didn't have an actual desk. What.
2. The PPCRV booth, as usual, was placed right beside the entrance. Made me miss working for them during the elections.
3. The girl in-charge of the laptop for PPCRV was connio. Not that there's something wrong with being connio (hypocrite) but people in our village aren't exactly like those who live in Corinthian or Valle Verde. I bet most of the voters here had a hard time understanding her speak.
4. The PPCRV team leader was really helpful. If he could carry me through the throng of pasaway candidate pollwatchers, he would.
5. As per the Halalan 2013 app, my Voter's ID has already been printed. I am quite disappointed that I didn't get to claim it in the precinct. It would've been really convenient for the voters to claim it there instead of going to the Comelec branch - in my case, in Cainta City Hall which is one hour away from my place.
6. Nobody was wearing any ID. If some kind of commotion happened in the precinct, you wouldn't know who you're going to approach. Well, except the PPCRV volunteers who were wearing their uniforms.
7. Pollwatchers of candidates were blocking the way. I hope next time they have a designated place to stay in and that they actually stay there. Goodness. Breeding, people.
8. The PCOS machine was busted when I got there. There was this guy who didn't have an ID that kept on jamming bond papers in it like it was gonna solve the problem.
9. When I went over to the tables, there were people watching me from the outside like they wanted to jump my bones or something. I chose a seat very far away from the window (them) but not that close to those annoying pollwatchers working for the candidates.
10. Limited markers were available and most of them didn't have ink.
11. Instead of feeding the ballot to the PCOS machine, I fed it to an envelop.
12. I didn't trust the guy who put indelible ink on my nail but he did a good job, not like the one who put it the last time.

It was a rather pleasant experience. I think the excitement from the first time just wore off, giving me a chance to observe everything around me.

This time around, I can say that I've matured as a voter. In 2010, I just wanted to take the photo with an inked finger and let people know "I'm mature, bitches!". Now, it really is all about wanting change; wanting a brighter future for Brianna. (This is for real, you guys. Perspectives change when you have a kid.)