15th General Election

This time round, there's some updates on the voting protocol (no phones in the voting booth, cos there has been stories of vote buying which involved people having to prove that they voted a certain way by snapping illegal pics while voting? I mean seriously, who's got time for that nonsense?), and there's a "recommended" time to go (like when the LLM releases travel advisories every festive season) when you check your voting details online. 

Apparently, the SPR site has been down since last night, so I guess a lot of people first had to stop at the counter to get their nombor bilangan and saliran before queueing. I had checked again a couple days before, AND printed that shit out because why not. 

The only good thing about people moving away (and presumably voting closer to where they actually live now or even vote by mail) is that the line was only a touch more bearable for the rest of us. The rain that happened a few hours before also helped with the weather. Also only had to park a couple roads down from the school, which is still a lot more walkable than parking at the office. 

I only got out of bed around 9 something, and after shower and light breakfast (so I don't get hangry on top of hot and grumpy), left the house closer to 10 a.m., which is about the time they "recommended" to vote. I'm not nuts enough to drag myself out of bed so early, especially on Saturdays.

There was a line outside the school as the policeman at the gate was getting a little shouty at the crowd because they were trying to bum rush the place, there's still a pandemic going on, and dude was trying to crowd control. 

It wasn't a walk in and out situation like my other peers and cohorts (I'm supposing) voting elsewhere, but I was still in line for about 20 minutes (if I really kept track of the time spent in line, I would snap)? I was waiting in line outside the school for awhile, and in line at my saluran for quite a bit before it was my turn. Killed some of that time listening to the latest episode of The Macha Men (which never fails to make me laugh in inappropriate places). 

All in all, I was there probably 59 minutes, cos I was waiting for the 'rents to finish voting and drive them back to their car parked at the office. While it's still better than the last couple times I was in line for 2, 3 hours (almost half a day), but it was still too damn long lah, you know? 

Spent the rest of the afternoon at the second home redeeming voting perks, offers, etc, pretty much until dinner time. If the F&B outlets want to incentivize people to go vote, consider me incentivized la.