Yahoo! Philippines Answers blog

Yesterday, May 10, I had the opportunity to take part in the country’s first nationwide automated elections.  It feels great to be among the millions of Pinoys who took part in this historic event.

For the first time in our country’s history, we relied on an electronic system that handled the counting of votes and transmission and canvassing of election results.  Technically, the election was not fully automated because paper is still involved.  But compared to before, there’s no more need to write one’s preferred candidates, we just have to shade the oval beside their name (the PCOS basically scans the ballots and counts the votes).

According to the Commission on Elections, about 75 percent of the 50 million Filipinos eligible to vote turned out in various precincts.  It’s great to know that many of us braved the heat (I guess that’s better than a rainy election day), endured the long lines (I had to wait for almost 3 hours, but enjoyed the company of my brother and friends from the neighborhood) and for some (especially the senior citizens), faced their fear of technology in the selection of our leaders.

This is certainly one step forward in making our elections more accurate, more reliable, and certainly much faster.  It still surprises many how quickly votes are getting counted now (according to the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, 60 percent of votes were counted on the first day of elections).

I hope you had a relatively good experience while voting yesterday.  What are your thoughts on the new way of voting?  Are you satisfied with the process for the first automated Philippine elections? Share your thoughts to the community, it’s great to hear different points of views from different people who voted in various areas of the country.

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