How to cast your vote

MANILA - Now that Filipinos are used to an automated election system, many have expressed concern that confusion and other problems may arise as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reverts to manual the upcoming Barangay (village) and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Elections on May 14.

On his blog site, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said around 5 million from the estimated 20 million SK voters are first time voters and unless they are paying atMANILA tention to the news, they would not know that "the ballots they will receive won't even resemble what they are expecting."

Since the upcoming elections will not be automated unlike in the May 2016 polls, Jimenez reminded the public that there are no ovals to shade and that voters will have to write the names of the candidates they will be choosing.

Choose the right ballot

There are two ballots.

One is for the Barangay elections and the other one is for the SK elections.

Voters aged 15 to 17 years old will only receive one ballot, the SK ballot.

Voters aged 18-30 years old will use two ballots, both the SK and Barangay ballots.

Voters 31 years old and above will get only one ballot, the Barangay ballot.

Take note of the differences on these ballots.

The text in the ballot for the Barangay Elections (right) is printed in black while the text in the official ballot for the SK polls is printed in red (left) except for the instructions, which is also printed in black.

Also note that the Barangay polls ballot has Arabic translation. This is intended for the Mindanaoan voters. Keith A. Calayag/SunStar Philippines