Candidates, or campaign workers, can bribe or intimidate people to vote their way or to stay home. They can suddenly change the location of polling stations, knock voters off the registration lists, mark ballots early, fake ballots or accompany illiterate or disabled voters inside the polling booths to offer advice on whom to choose. Not only has election-rigging been too easy in the Philippines, but proving fraud has been too difficult. Many believe candidates in the coming polls will not find things to be much different. The simplest way to swing an election is to just buy the votes.
Prices vary, but the method is nearly always the same.
Once candidates strike a deal, they give voters carefully folded pieces of blank paper and carbon paper so they can make a copy of their ballot. The candidates, after all, don't want to be duped. Fay Marie, a Namfrel volunteer, saw it happen during local elections in 1984 in Catmon, a town in Cebu province. Intimidation is common too. In 1986, in a town called Asturias in Cebu, the barrio captain was about to accompany a voter into the polling booth.