Monday, May 10,  was the Philippines’ first fully automated national and local elections. A few days before my brother told me to withdraw as much as I can from my payroll account in the event the election fails and the country is thrown into chaos. So as you can see, everyone was tense. I, on the other hand, was excited because this would be the first time I would vote.

The polls opened at 7AM but I woke up at 9. And since the school is just five minutes away from the house, I decided to walk.

A few meters from the entrance of the school.

And while campaigning ended two days ago, these people, kept on handing out crap.  It looks like a fiesta.

Time I went in: 10:08AM.

After finding my precinct, I had to line up. I thought this was the whole line. Not.

Almost there.

Turns out the whole room was a waiting room. Crap.

After about an hour in the waiting room, they led us to the real voting room.

I could smell the ballot paper.

Well hello, my fellow voters.

And hello PCOS machine. I filled up my ballot in less than two minutes.

One hour and thirty minutes later, I was done.

Can’t remove the damn thing.