Oscar Ballots: Take Two

A replacement batch of more than 4,000 Oscar ballots was mailed out Tuesday night after a mix-up at the post office prevented voters from getting their valuable correspondence.

"They're in the mail now," said U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Terri Bouffiou.

A week after mailing the ballots, tucked in business envelopes with 33-cent, first-class postage, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences learned on Tuesday members still hadn't received them.

Officials then discovered postal workers mistakenly thought the letters were third-class because they were dropped off in canvas bags, which typically are for bulk mailings. A new batch was picked up and mailed on Tuesday night.

The March 21 deadline for returning ballots will remain in effect, leaving plenty of time to count them in advance of the awards ceremony five days later, said John Pavlik, spokesman for the Academy.

The second batch of 4,200 ballots should be delivered Wednesday to Academy members in Southern California and by Thursday to Northern California members, according to the U.S. Postal Service.

"That will still give members a week-and-a-half to fill it out and mail it back, so that should be plenty of time," Pavlik said.

The 1,400 ballots mailed Feb. 23 to out-of-state and out-of-country Academy members were unaffected by the mix-up.

Los Angeles Postmaster Kerry Wolny received the new ballots in person Tuesday night at the Academy's Wilshire Boulevard office in Beverly Hills and they were mailed.

"I have a feeling that they will be treated beautifully," Pavlik said.

The original Oscar mailing had been treated with considerable fanfare by the Oscar people, who invite the news media to witness the annual ritual at the Academy's offices.

The Academy will invalidate the original ballots. The new ones will come with a yellow return envelope, as opposed to the originals' white envelope.

To avoid similar problems in the future, the Postal Service will recommend sending a letter carrier to the annual mailing ritual and taking the ballots directly to the post office, Bouffiou said.

Ballots have been lost by the post office before. In 1982, nominating ballots were mistakenly stuck into a bin marked for nonpriority bulk mail. They were found in time.

Written by Jeff Wilson