Democrats raise concerns on whether absentee ballots were secured or no

The Democratic Party of the Northern Mariana Islands has raised some concerns about this year’s elections; specifically concerns about the security of absentee ballots and the breakdown of early voters per precinct.

During the last stretch of ballot tabulations last Wednesday morning, the executive director of the local Democratic Party, Nola Hix, raised concerns about discrepancies in early voting results and the security of absentee ballots.

Hix’s protest came after Commonwealth Election Commission commissioner Jose Kiyoshi expressed that 26 absentee ballots had to be hand-counted as they were rejected by the tabulation machine due to either being wet or folded.

Kiyoshi, for his part, told the Democratic Party representative that there is a proper way to raise these concerns and during tabulation is not the time.

He instructed the party representatives to write their concerns in a letter and submit it to the CEC for review after the count.

After all ballots had been counted last Wednesday morning, CNMI Democratic Party vice chair Luella Ichihara Marciano told the media that all their issues will be brought up through a letter.

“We are going to be submitting a letter inquiring about the discrepancies from the early vote numbers. We want a breakdown of the precincts, which areas came in to vote early. They couldn’t release that information. There were also other issues like with absentee ballots. When it arrives in the mail, where is it stashed or locked up? The ballots that were wet, how did they get wet? I know the commissioner said it could be when they were being mailed but it leaves us with the question that when the ballots are picked up from the post office, are they really secured? Who is watching it? Is it locked up or is it accessible to others? Those are the issues that we also need to address,” she said.

However, Marciano clarified that the Democratic Party does not contest the results of the election.

“We want honest and clean election. Overall, we just wish that with everyone that came out, all the candidates that came out, we wish them well especially those who won. We are proud of them and we wish them good luck. This is for the CNMI, our people, who really need representation to help them. Ms. Kimberlyn King-Hinds, congratulations, I hope we can work together as well so you can help all of us, not just those who voted for you but all of us here in the CNMI because we really need the help,” she said.

Aside from the minor outburst, this year’s election went fairly smoothly.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, compared to previous elections, the Commonwealth Election Commission completed tabulations and certified results as early as 5:20am on Wednesday 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.

Thanks to this decision, 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.