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deposited in San Jose on November 5, 1996, would ordinarily be
received in Washington, D.C.
As a result, petitioners must show in the alternative that
(1) the petition was actually deposited in the mail on or before
November 5, 1996, prior to the last collection of mail, (2) that
the delay in receiving the petition was due to a delay in the
transmission of the mail, and (3) the cause for such delay.
As proof that the petition was mailed on November 5, 1996,
petitioners' attorney, Basil Boutris, testified on their behalf.
Mr. Boutris testified that his office inadvertently failed to
"calendar" the Chang case, and as a result he did not discover
that the petition needed to be filed until November 5, 1996, the
last day prescribed for filing. He testified that he accordingly
prepared a petition, used a private postage meter in an adjacent
law office for postage so as to insure the envelope bore the
correct date, and then personally took the envelope containing
the petition to the post office because it was election day and
he was traveling that way to vote. According to Mr. Boutris, he
took the petition to the Meridian Branch of the San Jose Post
Office at approximately 5:30 p.m. and handed it to a postal
employee who reviewed the privately metered date on the envelope
and dropped it in the bin.
This testimony is consistent with the policy of the U.S.
Postal Service to check the accuracy of the date stamped on
privately metered mail and only stamp the envelope with a U.S.
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