Today I voted. For the first time.

With no sleep and no brekkie I commuted to my voting precinct (#38A) early this morning, thinking I’d be done in less than an hour. Little did I know I would actually wait my turn the entire morning! Although I did bring my camera and my iPod, I regretted not bringing water, candy, and a piece of cardboard to function as a fan. I also wished I’d slipped into something a little more comfortable because the morning heat was unsettling, as it has been this summer.

The lady beside me was restless, offering her *constructive* feedback to the poll watchers but made sure it was loud enough for everyone to hear. She also made it a point to make eye contact with all of us, as though we were her audience and it was her mission in life to make the voting process in our precinct more methodical, more efficient.

And I could totally understand her (and the many people who grew tired and impatient of the long queue moving at a snail’s pace). I was voter #133 in my clustered precinct but after two hours, only 30 people from the queue had gotten to vote. The elderly and handicapable were prioritized, which was perfectly fine, although I wished they had been assigned their own room.

I finally got to cast my votes after four hours of waiting. What was frustrating about this was, my mum (assigned to a different precinct) finished much sooner than I even though I arrived at my precinct way ahead of her! Then I learned in the afternoon from contacts that it took them barely 20 minutes to vote because there was virtually no line anymore.

In any case, I’m pleased to have finally exercised my right to vote at 25 years. And thankful that the PCOS machine accepted my ballot!

Partial election results here: http://politics.inquirer.net/eleksyon2010/