Overseas voting begins in 2 days, ballots nowhere to be found. Consulates, do your job!
Overseas voters in the U.S. have not received their ballots for the 2022 Philippine elections, just 2 days before the voting period is supposed to begin. The Philippine Embassy and Consulates in the U.S. have been slow to provide voter information to their constituents, during a pivotal point in history to enact their democratic right to vote.
The sluggish and uneven rollout of information has ranged from the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles releasing a statement on April 6 with minimal voting information only four days before overseas voting begins, the Philippine Consulate General in New York just announcing that ballots would arrive "after April 10," effectively cutting short the period of overseas voting, and the Philippine Embassy announcing on April 4 that those who need to submit a change of address only have until April 8 (four days) to do so or else they would be de-registered. This last point is seemingly in conflict with a "vote anywhere" scheme introduced by the Commission on Elections on April 6.
The consulates' negligence is tantamount to voter disenfranchisement of Filipinos across the U.S. These latest moves are on top of the consulates' failure to conduct a thorough campaign last fall to inform voters that they would be automatically deregistered to vote if they did not participate in the last two national elections. This led to a dramatic 15% decrease in registered voters from the 2019 election.
We demand clean and honest elections! This requires proactive, timely, and accurate dissemination of voting information to overseas Filipinos by our consulates. The current status is unacceptable.
Consulates, do your job!
