Hollywood Whodunit: The Hunt for 4,000 Missing Oscar Ballots

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Mar 7, 2000 - 04:47 PM

Hollywood Whodunit: The Hunt for 4,000 Missing Oscar Ballots

By Jeff Wilson Associated Press Writer

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - Ten mailbags with all 4,000 Oscar ballots were missing Tuesday in a real Hollywood whodunit for Academy Awards executives, a distinguished accounting firm and the Postal Service.

Part of the mystery was solved in the early afternoon when postal workers found two of the missing sacks, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences spokesman John Pavlik said. They had been hauled from the 90210 post office to a bulk mail warehouse in South Central Los Angeles.

"They have tracked them in the third-class system and found some of the sacks in the general mail facility," post office spokeswoman Terri Bouffiou said. "We anticipate finding them all there.

A week after mailing the ballots, tucked in business envelopes with 33-cent, first-class postage, the Academy learned members still hadn't received them.

The deadline for returning ballots is March 21. The Oscars are March 26.

"We mailed the ballots, 4,000 of them, to Academy members last Wednesday and Price Waterhouse Coopers took the 10 mailbags to the Beverly Hills Post Office and left them there as would anybody," Pavlik said.

The 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.

If all of the ballots aren't found, the numbers on them will be invalidated and new ones will be printed and mailed as early as Tuesday night.

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. --- http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIY1WG1K5C.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), March 07, 2000

Answers

Carl, you are the best source of information and current news, ANYWHERE!!!!!!! Thanks.

-- suzy (suzy@nowhere.com), March 07, 2000.

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