CEC completes tabulations in record time

Compared to previous elections, the Commonwealth Election Commission completed tabulations and certified results as early as 5:20am yesterday morning.

One of the major changes made during this year’s election was the election commission’s adoption of CEC executive director Kayla Igitol’s recommendation to start early voting tabulations as soon as election day ballots start coming in.

According to CEC commissioner Jose Kiyoshi, thanks to the adjustment, all election day and early voting ballots were tabulated rather quickly.

All unofficial results for early voting and election day ballots were released as early as 3am with tabulation results from Saipan’s early voting period out at 9:38pm on election night.

“It was thanks to the recommendation of our executive director that as soon as the ballots come in and consolidated, we’d start tabulating the ballots. This is something we didn’t do in the past. During the last election, the previous chair wanted everyone out of the building before starting tabulations and that took time,” he said.

CEC board chair Susan Babauta shared that the adjustment was very efficient and effective.

However, CEC did face a hiccup after running absentee ballots through the tabulation machine.

“When it came to absentee, a lot of the ballots were not properly secured and when it was ran through the machine, the machine was rejecting it because of problems and so we had to manually count them,” she said.

With the over 800 absentee ballots received, 26 ballots were rejected twice because they were either wet or folded.

This issue raised concerns with Democratic Party of the Northern Mariana Islands representatives who were present for the count. The Democratic Party said they would be issuing a letter.

Due to having to manually tabulate these ballots, CEC released unofficial absentee ballot results at around 4:41am.

Immediately after tabulating the absentee ballots, the CEC went into a meeting where they discussed the certification of results.

Tabulated results were officially certified as of 5:20am yesterday morning.

“I believe this year’s election had a great turn out, especially the absentee ballots. We got about 90% of absentee ballots back,” said Babauta.

Results

The highlight of this year’s election was the delegate race which was won by CNMI Republican Party candidate Kimberlyn King-Hinds who gained 40.34% of votes or 4,931.

Following at a close second was Democratic Party candidate Edwin K. Propst with 33.27% of the votes or 4,067 votes.

Independent candidate John Oliver Gonzales came in third with 2,282 votes or 18.67% of votes followed by James Rayphand with 665 and Liana Hofscneider who garnered 280 total votes.

Meanwhile, in the senatorial race, Senate President Edith DeLeon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) lost the Saipan seat to senator-elect, Rep. Manny Gregory Castro (D-Saipan), who garnered 5,178 votes or about 52.89% of votes.

Like DeLeon Guerrero, Sen. Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) lost the Rota seat to Ronnie Mendiola Calvo, an independent, after gaining 51.91% of Rota votes or 476. The race was tight with Manglona just 35 votes behind at 441.

Karl King-Nabors, who ran unopposed, gained 803 votes from Tinian.

House of Representatives

As for the House of Representatives, a few incumbent members also lost their seats.

For Precinct 1, all incumbent members kept their seats including Rep. Diego Camacho (D-Saipan), Joseph Arriola Flores (Ind-Saipan), Rep. Roy Christopher Ada (R-Saipan), Roman Benavente (Ind-Saipan), and Vincent Seman Aldan (Ind-Saipan). The newly elected representative for Precinct 1 is Raymond Ulloa Palacios.

For Precinct 2, Rep. John Paul Palacios Sablan (Ind-Saipan) and Daniel Aquino were named its representatives with 700 and 559 votes, respectively.

In Precinct 3, Rep. Vicente Camacho (D-Saipan) lost his seat while House Speaker Edmund Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), and Reps. Marissa Flores (Ind-Saipan), Denita Yangtemai (D-Saipan), Blas Jonathan “BJ” Attao (Ind-Saipan), and Ralph Yumul (Ind-Saipan) managed to keep theirs. The newest representative for precinct 3 is Elias Rangamar.

For Precinct 4, Rep. Joel Camacho (Ind-Saipan) and Malcolm Omar (Ind-Saipan) maintained their seats with 738 and 582 votes, respectively.

Precinct 5 incumbent Reps. Thomas John Manglona (R-Saipan) and Angelo Camacho (Ind-Saipan) get to keep their seats with 1,344 and 1282 votes. respectively.

For Precincts 6 and 7, sitting Reps. Patrick San Nicolas (R-Tinian) and Julie Marie Ogo (Ind-Rota) managed to keep their seats in the House.

For complete results click on this link: https://www.votecnmi.gov.mp/2024-election-results.