Referring to your query on the Overseas Absentee Voter (OAV) ballot form for the 2010 Philippine national elections:
On the matter of the complaint of the OAV in Sydney: It was the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) that mailed out the ballot forms. The ballot forms were mailed directly by the COMELEC to all registered OAVs worldwide. The ballot form mailers were not handled in any way by the Consulate. The Consulate only received the accomplished ballots submitted by the voters.
There is no anomaly that the serial number of the envelope does NOT match the ballot’s: they are supposed to be different. I suppose that this is a feature to make the identification of the voter impossible once the ballot is removed from the envelope.
On the matter of ballot form: There is no anomaly that the ballot forms for OAVs in Sydney are not PCOS-readable. Only two Philippine foreign missions employed PCOS machines (the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong SAR and the Philippine Embassy in Singapore), because these two states have a very large number of registered OAVs, conducted a personal mode of voting wherein voters came to the embassy or consulate to accomplish the ballots and cast their votes, and do not require visas for Filipino technicians who may need to be flown in to service the machines should the need arise. The balance of the Philippine embassies and consulates worldwide used the traditional election ballot form, where the voter had to write the names of his/her candidates. The canvassing of the election ballots and tallying of votes by the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney was manual.
COMELEC has not advised the Department of Foreign Affairs when the canvassing of the votes of OAVs will become automated or electronic.
J. ANTHONY REYES
Consul, Philippine Consulate General, Sydney