NEW YORK - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) sent out 8,000 overseas absentee voting ballots to registered voters in the New York area 2 weeks ago.

However, 999 of ballot envelopes could not be delivered and were returned to the Philippine Consulate in New York City. The names of recipients are on a 24-page list at the Philippine Consulate website.

Consul Landro Lachica says the Consulate tried to rectify the situation as soon as they received the returned OAV mailing packets.

“Let’s say it’s an improper formatting of the addresses,” Consul Lachica said. “We try to reformat them in accordance with the local ways of doing it here, and then we send them to the intended recipient.”

A close inspection of some of the envelopes revealed misspellings. One envelope meant to reach Freedom Park was typed as “Freedon Park.” Lachica says other recipients may have moved to a new home and have not updated their mailing addresses to the Comelec before the ballots were sent out.

Another problem they found out was that the envelopes were labeled with a “Return to Sender” box that could be causing confusion with the US Postal system.

Although her name is not on the list of returned ballots, Filipino community leader Loida Nicolas Lewis is worried because she has not received her own OAV packet yet. Lewis inspected the images of some of the returned OAV envelopes and noticed the “return to sender” box.

“There is, on the envelope of the ballot, a printed ‘Return to Sender’ to make it easier for the Comelec. But the machines here in the United States Postal Service would read that, and would return to sender immediately,” Lewis said.

Several US Postal Workers told Balitang America that New York’s computerized intelligent mail system may read this as a return to sender instruction, even though the destination address is correct. The postal workers, who did not want to be identified, also noted that printed addresses on some envelopes are wearing off.

“So sa mga Comelec officials, sige pababayaan na naming itong mga kasalanan ninyo dito, pero ang sinasabi ko lang napaka-importante nitong eleksiyon na ito, dahil sa puwede tayong pumili ng mabuting pangulo para sa ngayong eleksiyon katapos eto pa ang gagawin niyo sa amin ngayon,” Lewis said.

Lewis says she’s concerned that this may cause a lower absentee voter turnout in the May 10 elections. Balitang America