This, however, will require amending the U.S. Constitution, he added.
“Is that impossible? No, but it is a huge task,” Kilili said.
A constitutional amendment must be approved by two-thirds of the House and Senate and then sent to the states for a vote. Three-fourths of the states must affirm the proposed amendment.
The Constitution can also be amended through a Constitutional Convention, which has to be called by two-thirds of the legislatures of the states. In order to pass, the amendments proposed by the convention must be approved by three-fourths of the states.
Kilili noted that no one in the United States directly votes for the president.
U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan participates in a wreath-laying ceremony at the American Memorial Park Court of Honor on Veterans Day. Photo by K-Andrea Evarose S. Limol
The president is chosen by an electoral college whose members are selected by voters in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
“It’s not necessarily a matter of discrimination, although it is the best argument to put it that way, but… that’s the law, and we need to change the law, and in order to change the law, we would have to amend the Constitution of the United States,” Kilili said.
He noted that CNMI residents who were previously registered to vote in a U.S. state are allowed to vote for president under the provisions of the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act.
He said when he was still the executive director of the election commission, he always encouraged eligible citizens to vote in a presidential election.
The U.S. territory of Guam holds a presidential straw poll. This year, former Vice President Joe Biden got 14,445 of the votes while President Donald Trump received 10,938.
