Voter in France travelled 6 hours to personally cast ballot

An absentee voter in France endured a six-hour commute to personally drop her ballot at the Philippine Embassy in Paris.
Scarlet Tugco traveled the over 490-kilometer distance from the eastern town of Strasbourg to the French capital Paris by bus to personally deliver the official ballot sent to her by post.
Tugco is among the 1.3 million overseas absentee voters qualified to vote in this year's elections.
Voting for OAVs started last April 9 and will end at 7pm Monday (Philippine time).
OAV voters will only be voting for the following positions: President, vice president, senators, and party-list group.
“As a mamayang Pilipino po ay gusto ko talagang bumoto. Nagsakripisyo po akong pumunta dito, namasahe ako, so sana lang walang masayang sa mga ibinoto ko po, dapat po tama lahat at walang dayaang mangyayari,” Tugco said.
The Commission on Elections is targeting an 80-percent voter turnout for overseas absentee voting.
“Our goal is about 80 percent voter turnout. Hopefully, the fact that this is a presidential elections will help,” the poll body's spokesman James Jimenez said in a television interview.
In 2010, voter turnout was 26 percent or 153,323 voters, while in 2013 it was only 16 percent or 118,823 voters.
The Philippine Embassy in Paris said that as of Saturday 1,513 ballots have been declared as valid among the 4,000 registered voters within its jurisdiction.
A total of 161 ballots were however declared as invalid, while 53 ballots were questionable as of May 7.
Sll eight ballots delivered via mail from Monaco were declared as valid. — Joseph Tristan Roxas/APG, GMA News

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