THE Commonwealth Election Commission late Friday afternoon unanimously voted to certify the 2022 general election results, including two contested Northern Islands ballots. The CEC also scheduled the gubernatorial runoff election for Friday, Nov. 25.
The candidates are the Republican team of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and running mate Senate Floor Leader Vinnie F. Sablan and the Independent tandem of Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang.
CEC Chair Jesus I. Sablan said the board certified the election results on Friday because they did not want the runoff election to occur on Thanksgiving.
Also present for the commission’s roll call vote were Vice Chair Esther Yatar, Jonathan Christopher Manglona, Lelanie Manglona, Jesus Cepeda, John Diego Attao, and their legal counsel, Assistant Attorney General Charles P. Reyes Jr.
The early voting period for the runoff will be from Nov. 18 to Nov. 24.
The CEC has until Tuesday, Nov. 15, to mail out absentee ballots to registered absentee voters. The last day to receive absentee ballot applications over the counter is Nov. 17. Absentee requests via electronic mail, or e-mail, will not be accepted.
Apart from those who were deemed ineligible by the election commissioners, all voters who requested an absentee ballot during the general election will automatically receive a runoff absentee ballot.
Absentee ballots must be postmarked on or before Nov. 25. The last day that the CEC will accept absentee ballots will be on Dec. 9.
The CEC has already begun working on chartered flights to Rota and Tinian, and may enlist the help of the Department of Public Safety for an expedited boat trip to the Northern Islands for the runoff.
As for the two provisional ballots from the Northern Islands, the election commissioners unanimously approved of them, and included them in the final count.
CEC Executive Director Kayla S. Igitol said the designation of official polling places is pending an official request to utilize youth centers. The CNMI Public School System has already approved the use of its schools.
The commissioners are also responsible for approving the ballot layout for the runoff election. The ballots will be printed by an undisclosed local vendor.
Igitol said this is the reason for the manual counting of ballots on the night of the runoff, adding that the tabulation machines and ballots used on election night were sourced from a stateside vendor.
“The board is the one that does the tabulation. They are the tabulating committee. They are going to have to sort [the ballots] by early votes, process and tabulate those, then do Election Day and absentee [ballots],” she said.
“They are not using machines because we are going to print the ballots locally. I do not have time to order those ballots and then get [them] shipped over in time to even meet the absentee [ballot deadline].”
Igitol said she plans to order the same number of ballots used in the general election, noting that the commission always orders 15% more than the number of registered voters on record.
Tabulation delay
As for the delay in the tabulation of ballots on election night, Igitol said that it was due to the processing of absentee and mismarked ballots.
“The delay was in the processing of the absentee ballots and the ballots that weren’t marked correctly. That’s why the machine was spitting [the mismarked ballots] out. [Those ballots] had to go to the board to make the correction, or look at it and [see] what the voter’s intent was. So, that was done and that took time. One of the delays was regarding the padlocks, but I want the public to know that we are not in possession of any ballot [box] keys. The CEC does not possess any ballot [box] keys,” said Igitol.
“We have directions inside the voting booths so our voters know to shade in the boxes. The machine will be able to pick [these mismarked ballots] up. But this time around, we’re not going to be using the machines. [There will be] a hand count. I cannot stress enough: mark your ballots correctly.”
Error
Candidates and community members also noticed the “incorrect numbers” posted on the CEC website on Wednesday, Nov. 9.
Igitol said she should have sent their third-party webmaster a more detailed breakdown of votes by precinct.
“I sent our webmaster the summary of what I had read, when I really should have sent him the breakdown by precinct. We were trying to find out what was going on, so I asked him to take it down. We looked at the numbers and I gave him the breakdown from election day, early voting, and absentee by precincts, and that’s when we found the issue, so now everything is good,” she said.
“It was a big turnout. I really thought that on the third day of early voting, it would die out, but it didn’t. It never died out. People were really excited to come out and exercise their right to vote,” she added.
Also present for the commissioner’s meeting on Friday were OPA legal counsel Ashley Kost, OPA investigator Edward Cabrera, Palacios-Apatang campaign manager Oscar M. Babauta and legal counsel Michael Evangelista.
The Commonwealth Election commission board members, executive director, and their legal counsel meet on Friday to certify the election results.
