My story made the front page of Arab News today. Congress rejected the proposal to include Saudi Arabia in postal voting (for the overseas absentee vote in 2007). The congressmen remained unconvinced. They think that although the kingdom's postal system is secure, the use of post office boxes as addresses negates this. Before the bill was passed in 2003 these same congressmen were saying that OFWs in Saudi Arabia were living in camps (workcamps) so there was a danger that their employers would control their votes. So what's next? I wonder how the Comelec will surmount this?

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87723&d=6&m=10&y=2006

Nevertheless, here are the registration statistics as of Oct. 5 according to the
Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat at the Department of Foreign Affairs

Asia Pacific - 11,092
Middle East - 18,291
Americas - 10,853
Europe - 6,393
POEA (Comelec satellite registration center) - 36,377
NAIA (Comelec satellite registration center) - 42,690
TOTAL - 125,696