The Philippine Online Chronicles

You've probably read by now on how to select a candidate to vote for as president, winnability versus character, competence , clear vision, how to vote in an automated election, the party list, candidates' campaign spending, and what I look for in a president. You and I have gone this far to educate ourselves on issues about the elections. It dawned on me: “Wait, I am preparing myself and everyone out there for May 2010 elections, but am I sure to vote?”  Cocoy wrote on How to find your precinct online so I headed over there to get the link on the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Registration Verification Precinct finder.

There is a disclaimer on the site:

Data is based on the submissions of our field election offices after the 16 November 2009 ERB hearing. If you applied for registration last December 21, 22, 23, 28 and 29, 2009 your record is not yet included here.

Pending submission of data from the concerned COMELEC field offices, data from certain cities/municipalities are also not available for searching purposes at the moment. For further inquiries or clarifications, please contact your local COMELEC office.

To my dismay, I am still deactivated.

Your registration record has been deactivated. 
A deactivated registration status means that you cannot exercise your right to vote this coming elections.

Yes, I got deactivated because I was out of town the past two presidential elections and unable to vote, but I re-registered on August 1, 2009 which is way before the December cut-off.

I then tried to search for my daughter's name since she was with me that day.

Daughter number two search result:

Your registration details cannot be found in the COMELEC database. 
Please make sure that you have entered the correct details.

Excuse me for the red font color but that is the color for the shocking search results.

Now the results peeved me after I did a search for daughter number two. This daughter of mine registered two days before the last day of registration so it came as another surprise when I discovered that her name came out in the search engine results. Same with my husband.

This person's family members are not listed either. All 10 of them.

Fortunately, I kept the registration slip and the next day, I asked someone to check my name at our local Comelec office.

Visiting the Comelec office does provide answers. I got my precinct number but they had some difficulty locating the details of daughter number two. It turns out that the birthdate was encoded wrongly. Instead of  May 8, 1987 or 05/08/87 (not the real date), the database yielded 08/05/87.

If your name is not in the precinct finder, just visit the local Comelec office so you don’t panic during election day. It pays to know your precinct number and the exact location of your precinct ahead of time too.

Aside from empowering ourselves as responsible voters, let's check if we can vote on May 10, 2010. Tell your friends or relatives who are registered voters to:

1. Check their precinct number online through the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Registration  Verification Precinct finder. You can read more on  How to find your precinct online.
2. If not listed, visit the local Comelec office. You can even send a messenger just like I did in case you are unable to take a leave from work.

Photo by author. Some Rights Reserved.

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