Embassy in Sweden says 'safeguards in place' after some voters report getting 2 ballots
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden assured voters under its jurisdiction that "adequate safeguards are in place" for overseas absentee voting as voters there reported receiving duplicate ballots.
At least three Filipinos in Sweden have reported receiving two ballots each. One of the voters noted that his name was spelled incorrectly in the second ballot he received.
In a statement late Wednesday, Manila time, the embassy said that the ballots they send out are based on the Certified List of Overseas Absentee Voters (CLOAV) that is provided by the Commission on Elections. The linked CLOAV does not have the voter's misspelled name on the list.
"The Embassy however acknowledges that there may have been an element of human error on its part, as it had worked on ensuring that ballots are sent out to voters at their correct addresses as soon as possible… before the voting deadline of 1 p.m. on May 9," the foreign service post said.
The Philippine Embassy in Stockholm has jurisdiction over 1,089 registered Filipino voters in Sweden and 467 voters in Finland. Filipinos there may cast their ballots through postal voting with a manual election system.
“Please be assured that adequate safeguards are in place in accordance with the procedures of overseas voting,” the embassy said.
Double ballots
In a public Facebook post made past-midnight Wednesday, Manila time, a voter based in Sweden said he received a second election packet on April 12. The voter did not grant an interview request, but allowed Philstar.com to write about his experience for context provided his name is excluded.
According to his post, the voter already filled up a mail ballot he received from the embassy on April 11, which was, by then, paper-sealed and “ready for mail delivery.”
He noted that the second ballot misspelled his name and, as seen on a photo attached to the post, the Vote Safe Pilipinas logo was missing from the envelope provided.
“Everything is almost the same except the ballot number and the ballot envelope number of course. The other one has a stamp but another one doesn’t,” the voter said.
He aired concern over the possibility of overvoting. He was also worried if his vote might not be counted since he was unsure of which ballot to use.
“If this is a glitch, then please acknowledge it and act upon it quickly. If this is not and assessed intentional then we have a bigger problem here,” the voter said.
Hours later, the voter updated the post to say that the embassy has already clarified the incident with him.
“We are looking into the matter and will inform COMELEC of the glitch,” a representative of the embassy told the voter according to the attached screenshots of their correspondence.
The embassy also gave him instructions on which ballot, envelope, and papel seal to use. The voter was allowed to cast his ballot in-person.
"I will submit the ballot personally after the holidays and will make sure that the other one will be disposed accordingly. I am grateful for the quick response yet I would like to seek accountability for this scenario that is why I made this post in the first place," he said.
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