Philippine NY Consulate sends out all registered overseas voter ballots amid technical issue

The Philippine Consulate in New York said it has sent out all ballots for registered overseas voters among members of the Filipino community amid the technical issue it encountered.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, the consulate said it had sealed the last election packet containing a ballot for a Filipino voter in the United States northeast.

“We hit 100 percent when we sealed the last election packet containing the ballot for one of our kababayan in the United States Northeast. By tomorrow morning, the Philippine Consulate General in New York would have sent out all ballots for registered overseas voters among members of the Filipino Community,” the consulate said in a Facebook post.

Earlier ballot feeding at the Kalayaan Hall was suspended due to a technical issue involving one of the vote-counting machines (VCMs) being used in the overseas absentee voting.

The consulate general said the technical issue was encountered during the latter part of the ballot feeding process when one of the two remaining ballots got stuck inside one of the VCMs.

“We were able to do this despite the delay in the arrival of the ballots and other election paraphernalia from the Philippines and despite half of us being sidelined by COVID-19,” it said.

“This would not have been possible without the dedication of colleagues who have been working overtime since the ballots arrived on 11 April 2022 and who gave up their Holy Week break and weekend just to make sure our kababayans would get their ballots and exercise their right to vote,” it added.

The consulate general also thanked the support and understanding of the Filipino community.

Overseas absentee voting (OAV) for the May 9 elections started on April 10 and will last until May 9 or Election Day in the Philippines.

Based on Comelec’s data, there are 1,697,215 overseas Filipinos registered for the 2022 elections. — DVM, GMA News