VOLUNTEER!

By James Jimenez

Every voter plays a three-fold role in elections: first, as partner of the Commission on Elections, with as great a stake in the success of the elections as the COMELEC itself; second, as a citizen in a democracy, charged with making the awesome choice of who gets to lead us going into the future; and third, as evangelist of democracy, promoting the democratic ideals that lie at the very core of the electoral process.

The demands of these roles on the voter overlap – as in a Venn diagram. As a partner of COMELEC, for instance, and an evangelist of democracy, a voter is expected to speak out against misinformation about the automated election system, and to actually extol the benefits of automation: increased safety for the teachers, increased efficiency in the counting, and more credibility for the process as a whole. As a citizen in a democracy and a COMELEC partner, a voter is also expected to more actively engage in elections, rather than just sitting back and waiting for election day. And so on.

Where all three roles intersect is volunteerism.

Embodying the spirit of selfless dedication to the common good, volunteerism in elections can actually take various forms. You could serve as election watchers for one or more of the candidates, or you could volunteer is a more non-partisan capacity, to help ensure the orderliness of the process for all. Either way, volunteerism reflects the highest commitment to ensuring elections are not only a procedural event but a celebration of democratic engagement.

As a Candidate’s Watcher

As a volunteer watcher for one or more of the candidates participating in the elections, your role is primarily to safeguard the interests of your candidate. This means that you will, among other things, make sure that all the steps of the process are properly observed.

Most of the time, this is easy to do. The Electoral Boards are, in general, well-trained and perfectly conversant with the COMELEC’s rules – embodied in a thick document entitled the General Instructions for Electoral Boards. As a watcher, you should get a copy of this document (you can download it from the COMELEC website), and familiarize yourself with it. Trust me. The effort you put into comprehending the contents of this thick document with be well worth your time.

If nothing else, knowing what the rules actually are – as well as knowing what is expected from every person involved in the process – will prevent you from falling prey to misinformation.

In the 2016 elections, people unfamiliar with the rules of procedure promulgated by the COMELEC watched as the Electoral Board inserted election documents into a brown envelope and set it aside. Without knowing why this was done, the witnessing watcher quickly went to the media and howled bloody murder.

Sadly, although the confusion was immediately cleared up, far more people had seen, heard – and reacted – to the mistaken accusations of cheating, than heard the explanation. The damage to the credibility of the electoral process had been done, when it could have been avoided if only the watcher had understood what it was he was seeing.

As a Non-Partisan

You can also volunteer as a non-partisan – although that is a bit of a misnomer. You can still vote for your choice – and in that respect, you are partisan; but you’re volunteering to ensure that the process goes smoothly for everyone, regardless of who they are supporting – hence, non-partisan.

And for non-partisan volunteer work, you have a lot of choices.

First, you can volunteer for any of the formally organized citizen’s arms: the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, for instance, is usually front-and-center, fielding volunteers both for voter education and for providing election day assistance to voters at the polling places nationwide. Because they send out volunteers to literally every voting center, the manpower needs of the PPCRV are massive.

There are other citizen’s arms that will gladly take you in: Namfrel –formally referred to as the National Movement for Free Elections; and the Legal Network for Truthful Elections, or LENTE, just to name two of the most prominent. In 2024, Namfrel is particularly keen on ensuring the security of the ballots, right at the very printing office itself; while LENTE is taking active steps to safeguard election integrity in the age of A.I.

Second, if none of that grabs you, you can still volunteer ‘informally.’ You do this by doing your part in promoting awareness and understanding of how elections work. Some people do this through their vlogs, and other social media postings. You don’t need to actually vlog (but if you can, why not?), but you can use other social media – like Facebook or X or, Tiktok. Just make sure that when you do post on social media, you are being accurate and fair – you don’t want to contribute to the body of misinformation and disinformation already polluting the information landscape.

And third, if your social battery really isn’t up to it, you can just participate in community driven initiatives – launched by others – to promote voter education and engagement. You can work directly with the community you feel most at home with – that could be your barangay, or your community of students, or your fellow theater actors or something – and help organize or join activities like workshops on how to vote, or participate in forums to discuss the platforms and qualifications of candidates.

Volunteer!

Volunteering to work for clean, honest, responsive elections is ultimately a personal commitment to fairness, transparency, and the collective good. It is a true act of service that emphasizes the shared goal of preserving the integrity of elections. In an era where democracy faces numerous challenges, the involvement of vigilant and conscientious citizens can be the difference between trust and doubt in the electoral process. The need for manpower is real and urgent. By stepping forward, you become a part of the solution, ensuring that the principles of democracy remain robust for generations to come.