“On Election Day, Rota and Tinian have representatives from [the Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the Public Auditor] so why do our voters and candidates need to wait for the next day to know the results of the elections on their islands?” said Sen. Paul A. Manglona, R-Rota and the author of S.B. 12-22.
His bill, he added, also proposes changes to the absentee voting rules to ensure “fairness and transparency.”
Current law requires voters to explain why they have to cast an absentee ballot.
“Someone at the election commission may choose to ignore a request for an absentee ballot,” Manglona said in an interview. “I’m not saying this has happened, but we just want to make sure that an off-island, qualified voter who needs an absentee ballot will get one and exercise his or her right to vote.”
According to the bill, the current absentee ballot requirement is “outdated and an unnecessary barrier to the exercise of the franchise.”
Thirty-one states allow no-excuse pre-Election Day voting — either early voting on a voting machine or in-person absentee voting, the bill stated.
It added that 20 states allow no-excuse absentee voting by mail.
According to the bill, “voters have noted disparate treatment when they wish to obtain absentee ballots because they will be within the CNMI but outside the senatorial distraction in which they are to vote on Election Day.”
The bill proposes that absentee ballot already “in the possession of the [election] commission on Election Day should be counted on Election Day….”
Other absentee ballots postmarked not later than the date of election and received by the commission not later than 14 days after the date of election will be counted 14 days after the date of the election.
The bill, moreover, will require the commission to compile and maintain a current list of persons requesting an absentee ballot including the date such a request was made.
The list should also indicate the persons to whom absentee ballots were delivered or mailed, including the dates the ballots were delivered or mailed.
This list must be available for public inspection at a government building in each senatorial district or on a Web site.
Manglona said his bill will likewise allow Independent candidates to have one observer in the tabulation area and require the election commission to publish the results for each election precinct or sub-precinct.
“Candidates also want to know how they fared in each village,” he said.
According to Manglona, “I raise the issues addressed by this bill every year, and I’m hoping that our colleagues in the House will also pass” the measure.
