This years election was a sleeper

Voters found the Nov. 6 midterm polls lackluster compared to the general elections two years ago as indicated by a slow turnout last Saturday where people waited at the last minute before casting their ballots.

A round of the major polling places on Saipan revealed that slightly over half of the registered voters had cast ballots eight hours after they opened at seven in the morning or about four hours before closing at exactly 7:00 P.M.

“They don’t get excited anymore,” said Antonio Taisacan, a poll supervisor at one center in Koblerville Elementary School.

Noting the turnout during the 1997 elections when Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio won an unprecedented third term, Taisacan said Saturday’s balloting paled in comparison.

The Board of Elections placed the percentage of actual voters at that time a high of about 98 percent, while unofficial results of the Nov. 6 polls showed a low fraction — about three-quarters — of 14,325 registered voters that turned up at polling places.

Willie Francia, who cast his ballots at San Vicente Elementary School, recalled the hoopla that surrounded the 1997 elections where the seats of the governor, the lieutenant governor, mayors, the House and the Senate were at stake.

“There was more hype, more intensity and it was more popular,” he said. “This is kind of small, a minor thing compared to that.”

Saturday’s balloting included 18 House seats, three Senate, three from the Board Education and also three from the municipal councils from each island as well as four legislative initiatives.

Many voters, particularly those working last Saturday, showed up a few hours before closing time. At Garapan Elementary School, people lined up waiting for their turn on the booths.

“It’s getting hot again,” said poll supervisor John Taitano as he noted that voters started trickling anew about 5:00 p.m. after a virtual non-activity in the early afternoon.

No intimidation

While supporters of candidates seeking elected positions transformed the vicinity around polling centers into a big fiesta, the absence of rabid campaigning was very noticeable.

A voter casting his ballots at the William S. Reyes Elementary School in Chalan Kanoa said he was “surprised” these supporters didn’t need to “harass” him to pick their bets.

“I just went past them. At least they didn’t coerce me,” he said. “Probably they wanted to obey the rules.”

BOE Executive Director Gregorio Sablan on Friday warned candidates and supporters against intimidating the voters by keeping them about hundred feet away from the polling place.

Generally, voting went smoothly despite confusion on the initiatives included in the ballots, according to poll workers.

Some voters, in fact, expressed surprise that they needed to cast their votes on these issues when they had no prior knowledge, said Moses R. Muna, a poll supervisor at WSR school.

“We do explain it to them. Sometimes we try to administer it to them,” he said.

Most voters, however, had learned about the inclusion of these initiatives, including the one seeking to restrict voting rights on land issues to indigenous residents, just days before election day — an apparent sign that there was lack of public education on the issues.

“I knew these initiatives. I read them on the newspaper,” said Nobert Borja from Koblerville.

After everything was said and done, however, there was something in this political exercise that could never be ignored. “That’s the only difference between democracy and dictatorship,” said Francia.