I voted today! Did you?

I'm proud to say that I've voted in every election since I became a registered voter. I almost broke the streak today since I'm still registered in my old precinct and I wasn't really looking forward to going all the way there just to vote (I'm amazed at people who go home to their provinces just to vote! kudos to them ;p). Luckily, we were able to stay with my mom during the weekend, so we just extended to today so I could go with her. :)

Anyway, we headed to the voting area bright and early at 7am. On the way there, people were handing out sample ballots like those below. It's so obvious who were giving them out since they really highlight  who to vote for, especially for the mayor and councilors.

so who will you vote for?

the school where the voting was held in our area

we still had a hard time finding our classroom despite this map

There were already quite a number of people there when we arrived. In our assigned classroom, there were probably 10 people ahead of us in line, but they kept letting senior citizens and pregnant women go first. This was understandable, but then we noticed that there was this 1 woman who didn't even seem pregnant who cut in line (not to be mean but she was on the heavy side and had a big stomach). The volunteers were clear that they were only prioritizing pregnant women 7 months up. Now I've been pregnant twice and I sure know what a pregnant woman looks like. But this girl's stomach honestly just seemed flabby. And even if she was pregnant, it sure wasn't 7 months. She and her other companions were kind of laughing like they got away with it. Even the other people in line started to notice and complain and they notified the volunteers. Good thing the woman did go back to the line after they questioned her. I was just so annoyed that people would do anything just to gain a few extra minutes. If we all just line up properly (and honestly) I'm sure things would go much quickly and smoothly.

the waiting room where you find your precinct number by looking for your name on the list

We were finally able to enter the voting room with the PCOS machine. Again, there were people who they allowed to go first since they were from the COMELEC daw (but shouldn't these people set a good example by lining up properly like the rest of us? haaaaay). Also, I noticed that they didn't even ask for IDs. :(

It only took me a few minutes to vote, but there were some people who were taking so long it was like they were taking an actual exam hehe! And some were still asking how many senators or councilors to vote for even if it was clearly stated in the ballot (can I just say I happened to see someone just vote for 1 senator?! I happened to glance by his ballot when we were lining up to submit it and he just had 1 black mark in the senator section... Uh-oh!).

Anyway, it took us a total of 1 hour to vote. I guess it wasn't so bad compared to others, but I also saw on FB that some only took 10 minutes in their area. As they say, you really can't complain about the people in office if you didn't exercise your right to vote. I'm just hoping and praying that qualified and deserving people get elected to office.