Voter’s Education

Our company spares some time to educate us on the forthcoming automated election. It would be a first time in the Philippine history to have this automation in election. Before, voters list down their voted candidates in the ballot and it is manually counted by the COMELEC that the final result would be released after several weeks. Now, voters will just shade the egg-shaped before the candidates name in the ballot and it will be scanned by the PCOS machine to count the votes and hopefully the results of the election would be released within a week. Since the machine is so sensitive, here are some simple tips so that our votes would not be wasted:

1. Make sure our hands are clean so that it would not leave a mark on the official ballot or else the machine will not read it.

2. Do not put a check, X, dot or half shade on the egg-shape instead fully shade it.

3. Do not exceed on the number of candidates to vote per position. Take note that we should only vote for 1 president, 1 Vice president, 12 senators, 1 party-list, 1 representative, 1 mayor, 1 vice mayor and councilors(varies per area) but in the ballot there is an instruction like this (President Vote for not more than 1).

Be ready also of a list of candidates you want to vote so that you would spend less time in the precinct and allow fellow voters to have enough time to also cast their votes. It is better to be ready with a list because there are a lot of candidates to choose from. To gave you an overview, 10 candidates run for president, 8 for Vice President, 61 for senators and 187 for party list. It is a one-time decision that once you put a mark on it, you cannot erase it anymore.Also for identification purposes, a voter must bring two valid ID’s that has a picture and signature on it.

Despite all the rumors, write-ups, news, and comments of possible failure of election, I am looking forward of experiencing this momentous event in the Philippine election. Let us hope and pray that this election will push through and end smoothly and peacefully. Vote wisely!!!