By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

GOVERNOR Felix P. Camacho has shrugged off the appeal filed by gubernatorial candidate Robert Underwood and his running mate Frank Aguon.
The Underwood-Aguon team filed its appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court over the weekend, seeking clarification on last November’s gubernatorial election.
Specifically, the Underwood-Aguon team wants an opinion on the counting of overvotes, which the Guam Election Commission did not count in certifying the results of the gubernatorial race.
Reacting to the Underwood-Aguon team filing, the governor’s office issued the following statement: “Anyone who loses a case in a state or territorial high court may petition the U.S. Supreme Court for further review. However, the nation’s highest court routinely denies such petitions, except in extraordinary circumstances. (The) Underwood-Aguon (team’s) petition fails to point out any such extraordinary circumstances here.”
According to the governor’s office, neither the Underwood-Aguon’s Guam legal team nor their current New York and Washington lawyers have been able to find a single court case from anywhere in the country in which overvotes were held to be “votes cast” in a candidate election.
The lawyer chosen to represent the Underwood-Aguon team is Paul M. Smith, a partner in the Jenner & Block law firm’s Washington, D.C. office.
Smith has had an active Supreme Court practice for two decades, including oral arguments in 12 Supreme Court cases, three of which involved election cases.
According to Underwood, his team is confident that the Supreme Court will pick up their case because the high court is always interested in questions that have to do with chief executives.
“There’s a pretty good chance that the Supreme Court will pick this up. But even if it doesn’t, at least we’ll know,” Underwood said.
The Camacho-Cruz team, however, said they remain confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will decline the Underwood-Aguon appeal to the Guam Supreme Court’s well-reasoned ruling because it is consistent with the uniform rule nationwide regarding the counting of “over-votes” and it is also consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s prior rulings.
“Our attorneys will be filing an appropriate response to Underwood-Aguon’s petition. However, we will continue to keep our focus on the future, not the past,” the governor’s office said.