7 April 2022, SAN FRANCISCO – The Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, which has consular jurisdiction over 10 U.S. Pacific Northwest states, conducted the Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) of Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) on 4 April 2022 from 9:00AM to 5:00PM Pacific Time at the Sentro Rizal of the Consulate at the 5th floor of the Philippine Center on Sutter St.
The FTS was conducted pursuant to Article XI, Section 47 of Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Resolution No. 10751. The Consulate’s three (3) Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) who were duly deputized by the COMELEC, carried out the FTS.
As reported to the COMELEC in Manila, no untoward or technical issues occurred during the FTS, which involved the testing of three VCMs to be used for a total of 24 polling precincts (8 precincts per SBEI and VCM).
Overseas voting in the U.S. will be done by mail. Registered overseas voters included in the Certified List of Voters (CLOV) https://tinyurl.com/SFCLOV released by the COMELEC will receive postal voting packets through their registered mailing addresses. Registered voters who changed addresses and have not notified the Consulate during the registration period are advised to notify the USPS near their previous addresses of their new forwarding addresses.
The Consulate has started mailing ballots to the 47,711 registered voters under its consular jurisdiction after receipt of the ballots and other election-related paraphernalia in a shipment from COMELEC Manila.
After filling up their ballots, voters can mail their ballots back to the Consulate using the ballot envelope with postage stamp provided by the COMELEC. Voters may also drop off their ballots at the Consulate during office hours. A ballot receptacle is available at the Consulate’s lobby beside the security guard’s area. All ballots must be received by the Consulate before 4:00AM on 9 May 2022 Pacific Time, the close of the voting period. Ballots received by the Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCG) beyond this time will be considered INVALID and will not be counted.
VALID ballots received by the SBRCG during the voting period (from 10 April to 9 May 2022) shall be fed into the VCMs by the SBEI every Monday and Thursday, including on Maundy Thursday, beginning at 9:00 AM. Accredited poll watchers and media are invited to observe the “ballot feeding” on Mondays and Thursdays at the Consulate.
For election-related inquiries, the public may email the COMELEC at [email protected].