Only 739 out of 2,422 actually voted

WASHINGTON - Filipino-American voters in Washington DC and surrounding states were a virtual no-show in the midterm elections, according to figures released by the Philippine embassy.

Of 2,422 ballots mailed to registered voters living within the embassy jurisdiction which covers mainly the southern states including Florida and the US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba only 739 were returned either by post or in person.

Consul General Domingo Nolasco said of the total ballots returned, 222 were declared invalid either because the voter did not seal the inner envelope, failed to sign it or did not put his or her thumbprint on the document.

Most of the ballots returned, representing a 30.5 percent turnout, came mostly from Filipino contract workers. Nolasco said 408 Filipinos in Guantanamo voted. Many Filipinos working at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also voted as did the embassy staff in Washington.

What about Filipino-Americans?
“Let’s just say their turnout was not as expected,” Nolasco said.
He said it was ironic that Filipino-Americans who campaigned enthusiastically for the passage in 2003 of a dual citizenship law so that they could reacquire their Philippine citizenship did not show the same enthusiasm in voting. Still he was optimistic the situation can only improve in future. The reasons for the poor FilAm turnout ran the gamut from .... it was not a presidential election, the ballots were not voter friendly, the candidates were not attractive enough and so on down the line.

Eric Lachica, executive director of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, and one of the first five Filipino-Americans who took an oath to reacquire his Filipino citizenship in 2003 described the postal voting as “easy, safe and cheap.”

“It beats going to the polling booth or to the embassy. I wish voters back home could have this hassle-free convenience," he said.
But whether it’s voting in Philippine elections or US elections the Filipino voter leaves much to be desired.

According to the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA) of an estimated 1.8 million Filipino-Americans of voting age in the United States, only 594,000 or 33 percent voted in the 2004 US presidential elections.

Nolasco said the turnout in Washington more or less mirrored the turnout at the Philippine consulates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Honolulu, New York, Agana and Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Out of 12,485 registered absentee voters throughout the United States not including Saipan only 3,602 actually sent in their ballots, he said. Senatorial candidates who made it to the magic 12 in the voters’ list were (in decending order): Francis Pangilinan, Ralph Recto, Joker Arroyo, Manuel Villar, Loren Legarda, Benigno Aquino, Francis Escuadero, Edgardo Angara, Michael Defensor, Aquilino Pimentel, Panfilo Lacson and Alan Cayetano.

MANILA - Only 71,668 of the 504,110 registered Filipino overseas voters had cast their ballots by the time the polls officially ended at 3 p.m. on Monday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.

Commissioner Florentino Tuason, who is in charge of overseas absentee voting (OAV), said the final turnout could hit the 80,000 mark since not all voting posts abroad have submitted their reports.

But he acknowledged that even “if we reach 80,000, that would still be less than 20 percent turnout."

Tuason acknowledged the significant drop in the turnout of overseas voters from that during the 2004 polls, when 65 percent of the 365,000 registered voters at that time exercised their right of suffrage.

The election official said the OAV results and procedures will be studied carefully to find out what caused the “very low” turnout. Earlier, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis attributed the low turnout to both disinterest, this year’s polls not being a presidential election, and the mobile nature of overseas Filipino workers. Between 24,000 and 36,000 OAV ballots intended for voting by mail have been returned to the Comelec because the addressees had changed residence. The overseas voters from 51 countries whose votes have so far been tabulated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) have picked six reelectionist senators to the 14th Congress, three outgoing congressmen, two first-term politicians and a returning senator. By Jose Katigbak