REPETITION, they say, is the key to learning. So, at the risk of being repetitious, here are 10 things you need to remember for the May 9 elections.
10. Before election day, take the time to write down who you want to vote for. Doing this before May 9 will give you enough time to actually think about the choices you’re making. And on election day, having a guide will make things go faster for you and for everyone else.
9. Also before election day, try to find out where you’re supposed to vote. Get help from the Commission on Elections’s hot line at (02)5259296, or (0918)5668301, or via e-mail at comelectv@gmail.com. On social media: @comelec on Twitter, and comelec.ph on Facebook.
8. If you enjoy a bit of joy juice occasionally, consider stocking up on your libation of choice. The
liquor ban will kick in on the eve of the elections and continue until the day after the polls. Not endorsing drinking in any way; just endorsing not getting sent to jail for an election offense.
7. Don’t accept money from anyone trying to buy your vote. That’s just gross.
6. Remember: To ensure that your vote is counted properly, shade in the oval completely. Don’t get cute; just blacken that space fully. And don’t mess up your ballot. If you change your mind about the choices you’ve already made, or if your ballot gets rejected because you made it unreadable, you are not going to get a second ballot.
5. Remember: After casting your ballot, wait for your receipt to be printed. The receipt will be detached from the vote-counting machine (VCM) by a member of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI). You will get inked before you are given your receipt.
4. Remember: You cannot take your voting receipt out of the polling place. You either drop it into the designated box or, if you have objections to what’s printed on the receipt, leave it with the BEI. The BEI will then attach your receipt to the Minutes of Voting.
3. Remember: You cannot use your mobile phones inside the polling place. This means no selfies—either by yourself or with either the ballot or the voting receipt. Again, not antiselfie; just antielection offense.
2. Remember: You can abstain and you can undervote—meaning you can vote for fewer candidates than a position requires, such as voting for 10 senators instead of 12. Both abstentions and undervotes will be recognized and recorded by the VCMs as valid choices.
1. Remember: Do not overvote. Overvoting means voting for more candidates than the position requires. Voting for 13 senators, therefore, means you’ve overvoted and all your votes for senator will not be counted. Unovervoted positions, however, will be counted normally.
Oh, and after voting, use the hashtag #BumotoNaAko, to tell social media that you’ve just shown leadership by example in exercising your right to vote. As some guy said: bad officials are elected into office by good people who don’t vote.
James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections’s Education and Information Department.