#PHVote: The only guide you’ll need on Election Day 2025

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Here's a list of 12 last-minute reminders for when you vote on May 12

Dear fellow Filipino voters: 

First, let me thank you for having followed Rappler’s coverage of the 2025 Philippine elections not just the past 90 days of the official campaign but over the past year. 

As early as May last year, we reported the crucial dates for this poll cycle. A month later, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) brought the brand new voting system to our newsroom to demonstrate how it would work — with some MovePH partners participating in the mock voting process. That was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, demo ever conducted by the poll body. In October, we gave you a preview of how crazy the news cycle would become, starting with the filing of certificates of candidacy. 

I can imagine you must be experiencing information overload by now.

So I have prepared this list of 12 last-minute reminders for when you vote tomorrow, May 12. These are based on our stories and the Comelec briefings we have attended.  

1. Find out if your voter record is active, and double-check your precinct assignment via the Comelec’s precinct finder. 
    
2. Familiarize yourself with names of candidates, from national down to local candidates, and how they are arranged or numbered for your particular municipality or city. The Comelec has uploaded on its website the ballot faces of all local government units. Starting in April, you should have received your individual Voter Information Sheet that contains those information.  
   
3. Prepare your list of candidates before going to the polls. If you will vote by slate or type of candidates for senator, Rappler did the groupings here. If you will be mixing and matching individual senatorial candidates, you can check their profiles here. 
   
4. The precincts will open at 5 am, but only for those who need special assistance: senior citizens, pregnant women, and persons with disability. By 7 am, the rest of the voters will be accommodated already. Polls close at 7 pm. 
   
5. Several malls across the country have been designated as polling centers. Check the list of malls here, and whether they include your precincts. They, too, will open at 5 am and close at 7 pm.  
   
6. For the overseas absentee voting — done via the internet for the first time in all but a few consular areas — the pre-enrollment has been extended to 12 pm, Philippine time. The voting portal will automatically close at 7 pm, Philippine time. Better check at what time that falls in the country where you are based.  
   
7. Once inside the precinct, here is your step-by-step guide to what to do and expect. 
   
8. Between the time you are preparing to go to the polling center and the time you are waiting for results of the elections, disinformation will abound. Here are some of the common election “news” that should not make you panic. 
   
9. Make sure you have bookmarked the Rappler Election site that carries information on candidates and news updates, it will turn into an election results site shortly before the polling precincts close. The results will reflect real-time on our site as counts are transmitted from the precincts to the Comelec Media Server. 
   
10. Rappler will have three live broadcasts on election day to give you updates from the field and insights gained from our yearlong coverage. Nobel Peace Laureate and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa will anchor the 6 am and 10 am shows, while Rappler head of community Pia Ranada will present the 6 pm edition. Bookmark the Rappler YouTube channel for these. 
    
11. The transmission of vote counts from the machines at the precincts to the central servers in Manila will start at 7 pm. Precincts that finish voting early will have to lock their machines already but wait for 7 pm to transmit. 
    
12. By around 8:30 pm, according to Comelec Chairman George Garcia, the results or at least the shape of the national contest will likely be known. That means that many of the local counts shall have been completed earlier than that. Expect most of the local proclamations to happen one after another the same night or the following morning. The senatorial and party list winners will be proclaimed only after the national canvassing finishes within 7 to 10 days.  

Here’s to voting with wisdom, courage, and integrity!  – Rappler.com