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CEC to set up voter registration at Price Costco
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Posted on Apr 19 2009
An outreach center that will help boost voter participation in this year’s general election will open next week, according to the Commonwealth Election Commission.
Starting on the first Saturday of May, a commission employee will be deployed to Price Costco to conduct special registration for community members who may not be able to visit the Capital Hill office due to work.
John L. Takai, the commission’s outreach logistic coordinator, said the center will run every Saturday until Sept. 12—or the last Saturday prior to the registration deadline set for Sept. 18.
Takai disclosed that the outreach program every election year yields about 15 percent of the projected CNMI voters.
This year, he said, they are expecting some 2,000 potential voters to register at the Price Costco.
Latest figures of the commission show that there are 13,104 total registered voters, excluding the 209 new voters it recorded since February.
The number is expected to jump by July when fresh graduates and new voters troop to the commission to register.
Takai said they also encourage failed voters in the 2007 general election to come forward and be counted in the November polls.
There were 3,420 failed voters in the last general election.
Takai said the biggest voter turnouts usually happen during gubernatorial races, where up to more than 15,000 citizens exercise their right to choose their leaders.
“But this year, we’re seeing more,” Takai told Saipan Tribune, noting the number of failed voters and new graduates who will soon register.
Past gubernatorial elections normally yielded an 80 percent overall voters’ turnout, including absentee ballots.
The outreach center at Price Costco will open every Saturday from 9am through 3pm.
The last day of registration at the commission office is on Sept. 18.
Candidates have until Sept. 23 to turn in their nomination and petition to the commission.
