Sam McPhetres, the instructor of Northern Marianas College current issues students who conducted the “survey,” described the result as “a tie.”
“Nobody has a victory with a difference of only nine votes,” he said.
McPhetres’ class, which was assisted by the Commonwealth Election Commission and the Office of the Public Auditor, aimed for at least a 60 percent turnout but the actual figure was just 6.7 percent. The survey was conducted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the ballots were tabulated at NMC.
The yes vote won in Precincts 1, 2 and 3. Of the 220 Precinct 1 and 2 voters who cast their ballots at NMC, 114 were in favor of a Saipan casino while 106 opposed it.
Of the 241 voters from Precinct 3 who cast their ballots at the multi-purpose center in Susupe, 134 voted yes while 107 voted no.
Participating Precinct 4 voters cast their ballots at the legislative building on Capital Hill where the result was 31 yes and 41 no.
At the Kagman Community Center, 146 Precinct 5 voters participated with 88 in favor and 58 against.
There were 162 early voters at NMC on Thursday and only 49 voted yes while 113 voted no.
According to the election commission, Precinct 1 (San Antonio, San Vicente, Dandan, Koblerville) had 4,130 registered voters as of Oct. 14, 2011; Precinct 2 (Chalan Kanoa, Susupe)1,192; Precinct 3 (Garapan, Chinatown, Gualo Rai, San Jose/Oleai) 3,175; Precinct 4 (Tanapag, San Roque, Capital Hill, Northern Islands) 1,694; and Precinct 5 (Kagman) 2,336.
McPhetres said the participating voters were “mostly senior citizens.”
Asked about the dismal turnout, McPhetres said: “You can lead the horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink.”
He said his class did everything it could to urge voters to speak out about a controversial issue on Citizenship Day.
Commonwealth Election Commission Executive Director Robert Guerrero said the NMC students did a great job in performing what they had learned from the election guide book provided to them.
He said over the last several weeks when they were preparing for the referendum, the students asked questions about what they must do regarding different scenarios.
“That kind of gave them an idea on how to run the election process very carefully,” he added. During several meetings, he said the students organized different working committees, came with open minds and even had their own recommendations.
CNMI lawmakers, especially the senators who asked NMC to conduct the nonbinding referendum, hoped that the result would reveal where Saipan voters stood on the casino issue.
