About a couple of months ago, a colleague in the transport industry asked me to conduct three simple election-related polls on our Facebook page.

• First, does access to transportation affect voters’ willingness to participate in elections?

• Second, what is the people’s preferred mode of transportation on election day?

• Third, how far do our followers live from their designated voting precinct?

After I had posted the polls, he requested that I write about the subject. Sure, why not?

For the first poll, the clear and top answer was “yes, definitely,” which got 90% (297) of the votes. It was followed by “shouldn’t matter” (6% or 18 votes), and then by “maybe with flying voters” (4% or 16 votes).

For the second poll, the overwhelming choice was “private vehicle” with 72% (152 votes). “Public transport” was a distant second with 13% (29 votes), with “motorcycle taxi” and “bicycle” a further remote third (tie) with 6% (11 votes). “Ride-hailing service” (TNVS) got 2% (6 votes), and “e-trike” scored 1% (3) of the votes.

Finally, for the third poll, the top choice was predictably “walking distance” with 61% (287 votes). “Within 5km” was the only other significant answer with 24% (113 votes). All the other choices were almost negligible: “within 20km” and “more than 100km” with 4% (15 votes), “within 10km” with 4% (14 votes), “within 50km” with 2% (12 votes), and “within 100km” with 1% (8 votes).

Said colleague then gave me some US-sourced references to help me with this article, including one courtesy of Scholars at Harvard, and another from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. There was also a third one from the Dutch ScienceDirect.

From Scholars at Harvard:

Car access creates the largest hindrance to voting for those people who live farther from the polls.

From Circle:

Transportation is a significant barrier regardless of educational attainment or other demographic differences: 29% of all youth in the survey cited it as a reason why they didn’t vote, with 15% calling it a major factor.

From ScienceDirect:

Overall, our findings point to the importance of equitable provision of accessible in-person polling locations and transportation to the polls to avoid posing barriers to voting, even in regions that have unrestricted access to mail-in voting.

Now, I have no idea if it is accurate and fair to apply foreign studies to the Philippines, especially those collated in First World countries. Furthermore, at the risk of belittling our Facebook page, I am sure that the above figures we gathered from the informal polls were not reliable representatives of the majority. For instance, in the second poll, the fact that private vehicle was the choice of 72% of the respondents should tell you that it was influenced by the class that our followers belonged to.

Safe to say that those who participated in our polls were members of the middle class.

Maybe my colleague didn’t learn much from the polls. But I have a personal story I can share, and this—maybe, just maybe—could help him.

When I was small, I assumed that the place where people voted was fixed for life. I thought this because, every election, my parents would vote in Imus, Cavite. We lived in Baclaran, Parañaque. It was only when I grew up that I understood that they did this because they had to support our relatives who ran for public office.

I knew doing so was a sacrifice. Especially considering we didn’t own a vehicle.

My parents weren’t flying voters. They just knew where their loyalty lay. I’m proud to say that they didn’t sell their votes. They, however, were prepared to back clan members.

Which, if you think about it, is exactly the problem with our country.