Two complaints filed
GUAM Election Commission board members officially certified the results of the primary election during their meeting yesterday afternoon. The GEC board members also reviewed two administrative complaints.
In a previous report, it was noted that the results showed a total of 21,329 ballots cast. According to an updated report the Variety received from GEC Executive Director Maria Pangelinan yesterday, the actual number of ballots cast totaled 21,375.
The latest GEC report showed 11,594 Democrat votes cast and 7,279 Republican votes cast. In addition, a total of 90 Independent votes were cast and there were 2,369 crossover votes. All senatorial and mayor/vice mayor results were certified. The results for the Office of Public Accountability race were also certified.
During the meeting, Pangelinan’s staff provided a listing of the results to GEC commissioners Joe Mesa (chairman), Don Weakley (vice chairman), Chris Carrillo, Martha Cruz Ruth, Johnny Taitano, and Dot Chargualaf. GEC legal counsel Jeff Cook was also at the meeting but independent member Pat Civille was not present.
Pangelinan confirmed they left the University of Guam Field House at around 9 a.m. Sunday after making two trips to GEC to drop off the documents and ballot boxes.
Complaints
The two complaints came from Tamuning and Piti. Pangelinan said her office was notified immediately about the complaints.
The first complainant indicated in a letter to GEC that a person was refused entry to vote because that person had a political T-shirt.
“According to the precinct official, the person was asked respectfully if she could go and turn her T-shirt inside out,” Pangelinan said. Public law does not allow registered voters to wear items on them in support of a particular candidate. It was decided that a letter would be sent to the complainant citing the law.
The second complaint was from congressional Independent candidate Jonathan Diaz who said there was an insufficient number of write-in slots in the Independent column. Pangelinan said Diaz also expressed concerns about the absence of sample ballots at the precinct and not being allowed to use a provisional ballot.
Ruth was perplexed about Diaz’s concerns and thought his complaint was irrelevant.
“It’s very confusing what he’s trying to relay to us,” Ruth said. “His name appears in the Independent column yet he is complaining that there was no sufficient write-in under the column in which his name appears. I would say this is really frivolous on his part to file this sort of complaint.”
Mesa asked Pangelinan if there were any more complaints that were not submitted and the director informed him that her staff would go through the boxes to confirm.
The GEC board went into executive session after certifying the candidates. Their next meeting will be announced at a later date.
