Perhaps I missed it, but I have not yet seen ANY plans from the Election Commission to deal with the probability that no one will receive the required number of votes (50 plus 1). On top of that, there is very little time between the election on Nov. 4 and the date in Jan. 2009 when the winner must take his seat in Washington, D.C.
I certainly hope that this election is NOT going to be a case like last time wherein some “winners” were elected by a MINORITY of voters. If so, we could have a delegate to the U.S. Congress elected by as few as 1/8 or about 12 percent of the voters. Such a delegate would, in effect, be useless to the CNMI.
With the election already upon us, I think it’s about time the Election Commission enlightened the voters about this important issue and any plans to hold a runoff election, if needed. If I missed such an announcement, or it was not printed in the newspaper’s online versions, then I ask that it be made available in the newspapers for those who read only the online versions.
DR. THOMAS D. ARKLE JR.
San Jose, Tinian
