Robert Guerrero, executive director of the commission, said the ballots are scheduled to be delivered by the end of this month.
Once here, absentee ballots will then be sent out to different parts of the states and other off-island areas.
The names of the candidates and their corresponding political parties and the positions they are competing for will all be printed on the first page of the official ballot.
The back-page is for the four initiatives that require voter approval:
• House Legislative Initiative 15-3 — to allow a high school student and a member selected by teachers within the Public School System to represent them on the Board of Education.
• H.L.I. 16-11 — to prohibit withdrawal of any funds from the general funds except by appropriations.
• A popular initiative to apply the Open Government Act, to legislators and the Legislative Bureau.
• Senate Legislative Initiative 16-11 — to hold the next general elections in even-numbered years to coincide with the next congressional elections.
The legislative initiatives must be approved by the majority, while the popular initiative requires two-thirds of the votes cast.
The ballots were printed in Alabama to ensure that they can be read by the election counting machines that will be used during the canvassing.
Guerrero said the Election System and Software was hired to count the ballots.
As of Sept. 1, 15,167 had registered to vote, but Guerrero said they expect the figure to rise to about 16,000 when the registration ends on Friday.
Thus far, of the registered voters, 1,300 are from Tinian, 1,500 are from Rota and the rest are from Saipan.
Six machines will be used to count the votes. Two of the small machines will be brought to Tinian and Rota where a preliminary counting will be done before the ballots are recounted on Saipan.
Saipan votes will be counted last.
CNMI voters will elect a governor, a lt. governor, six senators, 20 House members, four mayors, nine municipal council members and two Board of Education members.
There are no judges or justices up for retention this year.
