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NOW that Independent candidates are allowed to be on the primary ballot, last night the Guam Election Commission went over the design of the ballot during a special meeting.
GEC Executive Director Maria Pangelinan said there are two versions they will review and there will be three columns for the delegates’ ballot to include Independent candidate Jonathan Diaz.
“That will be Democrat, Republican and Independent so those columns will go all the way down. On top will be the Congressional race and the second section will be the Legislature. In the back will be the mayoral races and you will have three columns as well. You will have Democrat, Republican and Independent,” she said, adding the ballots printed will accommodate the villages, with the exception of Piti, Merizo and Inajaran.
“To follow the mandate, if there’s one Republican and Democrat in the mayoral races, they go straight to the general [election],” she said. In the case of Robert Hofmann, who is running uncontested for the Sinajaña mayor position, he will still be on the primary ballot, but will be certified afterwards.
GEC expects to have the ballots printed by this weekend, pending corrections and changes that were made during last night’s meeting, including Chamorro translations. There are about 47,000 registered voters and Pangelinan said they are anticipating more than 50,000 ballots.
“For every precinct, we print one extra ballot for every nine voters,” she said.
No crossover
There is a catch, however. If a person votes for Diaz, the Independent candidate, that person cannot “crossover” and vote for candidates in the Republican or Democrat party. Public law states that crossover voting is only allowed during the general election.
Meanwhile, GEC has officially filed a joint motion with the federal government to enter a stipulated order to indicate they are complying with the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. The document was filed on Monday. Responses are due by July 24 and replies are due by July 31.
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