Election Fever

It's barely five days before the elections and the campaigning is in fever pitch. Last Friday and Saturday, I, together with other local lawyers here in Cabanatuan, have conducted a training/seminar on the poll watchers of a local candidate for a city mayor. The 2-day seminar focused on the duties and responsibilities of poll watchers as well as techniques and methods on appreciation of ballots. It is a classroom type session where there are around 40 watchers per classroom. Each session lasts for about 2 hours and we were paid a thousand bucks per session. I had four sessions so I earned four thousand bucks --- not bad for my first professional fee as a lawyer.

There are lots of materials available on-line and some are written by bloggers. Atty. Punzi has extensively lectured on election offenses while I have posted some do's and dont's in the coming election here in my blog. The materials used for the seminar were provided to us. However, it is up to the lecturers to present these materials to the watchers in the easiest possible layman terms.

I presented my lecture in two parts. First is the responsibility and duties of poll watchers and the second part deals with the appreciation of ballots.

I divided the duties of poll watchers in three time span as follow:

1. Before 7 am
2. From 7 am to 3 pm
3. After 3 pm

Before 7 am - The watchers should be in the poll precinct as early as 6 am to inspect the election paraphernalias brought by the Board of Election Inspectors as well as inspect the polling place as a whole particularly giving attention to the voters list and the materials in the voter's booths.

From 7 am to 3 pm - The watchers are expected to observe the conduct of the election from the giving of the ballots to the voters to the casting of the ballots in the ballot box. They should note any irregularities and report the same instantly to the Board of Election Inspectors.

After 3 pm - It is the time where the watchers should carefully appreciate the ballots specifically ensuring that what was written is what is being counted. The watcher then must ensure that the Election Returns are correctly and properly accomplished and they must accompany the Board when it transfers the election returns and the ballot box to the Board of Canvassers.

The second part of the lecture deals with appreciation of ballots. I enumerated instances of Sec 211 of the Omnibus Election Code to the watchers and gave them examples of each instances.

;-)