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‘Guam runoff may be unnecessary’
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Posted on Nov 09 2006
The Guam Election Commission adopted last night a legal position that may break the impasse over the Guam gubernatorial seat and make a runoff election unnecessary, the Pacific Daily News reported in its website.
According to PDN, the commission voted to accept the advice of legal counsel Cesar Cabot, who said that a local law passed in May 2000 specifically prohibits “over votes” from being included in the count of votes cast for governor.
“Over votes” are ballots that contain more than one vote for governor.
This legal position would allow Republican Gov. Felix Camacho to get a majority of the votes—50.26 percent.
If the “over votes” had been included, Camacho would have gained only 49.61 percent of the vote and a runoff would have been required with Democratic candidate Robert Underwood.
Federal law, which spells out how a Guam governor is elected, requires a gubernatorial team to get 50 percent plus one vote of the votes cast. When the threshold is not met, a runoff is necessary.
PDN also quoted attorney Mike Phillips, a representative for Underwood, as saying that the Democrats likely would challenge the commission’s decision in court.
The election commission met at 4pm yesterday to discuss the over votes issue. At 7pm yesterday, a commission employee told the Saipan Tribune on the phone that the commissioners were still tabulating the election results.
According to PDN, unofficial results of Tuesday’s election in Guam showed that Camacho received 19,552 votes, and Underwood got 18,688 votes. There were 688 write-in votes, PDN said.
Without the 504 gubernatorial over votes, the votes cast for governor total 38,928. [I][B](Agnes E. Donato)[/B][/I]
