05.06.10 kulturnatib

OAV

Sometime before we left for our recent vacation a few weeks ago I learned from a Filipina friend that she had already voted, which was weeks before this conversation took place.

This surprised me. I had registered as an OAV (Overseas Absentee Voter) early enough last year that I should have been among the first in Canada or in the Ottawa-Gatineau region to receive my ballot in the mail.

We left for our vacation and tried to leave voting and politics behind. Not very successfully. But then I had already known what I wanted to do. In fact, I planned for a performance art piece on the elections, or on elections in general, as the piece finally developed into.

It become the installation-performance piece, “YouAreWhoYouVoteFor.”

And then, a few days later, upon Budoy Mirabiles's invitation to his exhibit opening, I did another piece, an extemporaneous one, “IVote.” This was in lieu of a repeat of the previous performance, which had become difficult on account of an unseasonal rain that drenched and damaged the voting box, but which would have been in keeping with Budoy's exhibit which was on recycling.

Given these, on our return, I lost little time in tracking down my ballot. It's right here, an embassy employee told me when I phoned. The Comelec mistyped your postal code, I was told further and was assured that I should get it in the mail soon.

I did, sooner than I expected. In an envelope - two envelopes actually, one, the original from the Comelec in Manila, and the other, the resend, from the Embassy in Ottawa – were documents and forms to facilitate and complete my vote.

It contained the certified list of 10 presidential, 8 vice-presidential, 61 senatorial and 187 party list candidates – five pages in all, the voting instructions, the official ballot and other peripherals whose non-use would nullify the vote.

It wasn't as daunting as I had expected. It helped that we didn't have to vote for 'local' officials, which, if I remember right what my brother said, would have easily tripled the number of pages for the certified candidate's list.

There were just a few hurdles. First, it wasn't stated in the instructions that one could either write the candidate's or party list's full name or a shorter, easier to remember one that appeared next to the full name. Liza Maza is the notable exception here because if her name was not that easy or short enough to remember then you could try Liza Maza ng Gabriela.

This might be easy enough to guess at, but it would be just as easy and more useful for a first time voter or a long-time boycotter like me to make this explicit in the instructions.

Then there is the business with the thumb mark. I fail to see how in this day and age the thumb mark continues to be a foolproof way to establish identity especially when, without proper supervision, it is difficult to get a print with sufficient 'legibility.'

That is if one had access to an ink pad to begin with. Again, in this day and age of the Ipad, who has use for an ink pad? In the house? Or, -- and this is the biggest advantage to absentee voting – wherever you're voting?

Fortunately, the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa, where, in a heartening display of proactiveness, there were ink pads at ready, is right downtown, just a few flights up from where I voted in a cafe where I was fully present knowing, actually way in advance, whose names were going to fill the blanks. Some, not all.