Thursday, November 06, 2008 So: Cebu for Obama but not overwhelmingly By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
WHEN we left our houses at about 11:30 a.m., the results of the US elections showed Barack Obama leading John McCain by close to 100 in the electoral votes. When we got to SM 30 minutes later, McCain had conceded even if the results were still coming in.
By the time we had registered at the US Presidential Election Watch Party at SM’s North Wing, we knew Obama had won. Despite this knowledge, Sun.Star editor Nini Cabaero and I still cast our votes in the mock elections. Maybe our two votes could sway results, who knows?
But we only wanted to try out the US method of voting. We were stumped on how to go about it because the process was nowhere near like what we have in the Philippines. We got our instructions from Jack Jakosalem who could have passed off as a congressman of Chicago if only he weren’t a councilor of Cebu City.
We were done voting in 30 seconds and our index fingers remained clean. We didn’t write down the names of the candidates of our choice. We only shaded the portion beside the names of the presidential tandem then fed the ballot into the machine, which then spat out a receipt that indicated the status of our ballot.
Without the ink mess and tediousness of voting in our usual precincts, Nini and I didn’t feel like Pinoy when we voted in the mock elections at SM. But neither did we feel Americans. We felt our Pinoy stomachs grumble for the American hotdog and burger being served to the guests.
Anyway, Jack told us that Sequoia, the company that manufactures the voting machine that read Nini’s ballot and mine, had tried to bid for the Philippines’ computerized election program. He said he didn’t know what became of the bid or the poll computerization plan.
The Filipino guests at the election watch party had the same comment about the US elections: that the results were known in less than 24 hours. If this were the Philippine presidential elections, actual results wouldn’t be known until Gloria Arroyo’s grandchildren had children of their own.
Later at a small roundtable with US Deputy Chief of Mission Paul Jones, The Freeman editor-in-chief Jerry Tundag said the US elections had made work easy for the local journalists because we had the results to use as banner story. If this were the Philippine presidential elections, editors would have to make do with peace and order stories because results wouldn’t be available in another month.
Jones wanted to know how Cebuanos viewed the US elections and which candidate was popular among them. Mock elections were simultaneously held at SM Cebu and at the Mall of Asia in Metro Manila.
The results in Cebu and Metro Manila showed a preference for Obama. He got 112 votes at SM and 490 at Mall of Asia, while McCain got 95 and 139, respectively. If we go by percentages, Obama got 54 % of the Cebuanos’ votes and 78 % of the Metro Manilans’. Overall, he got 72 %.
While not indicative of the preference of the entire Cebu, the numbers for Obama say something about the conservativeness of Cebuanos. Obama did not win by an overwhelming vote in Cebu, unlike in Manila. Many of those who cast their votes at the mock elections in SM were businessmen and people who hold positions of power and influence.
Before the results were made known, a group of Cebu editors, over hotdogs and burgers, projected a McCain win in Cebu. Cebuanos, we said, prefer stability to change and Obama, on account of his skin color, age and beliefs, represents change.
The editors were just three percentage points incorrect in their projection. I voted for Obama.
