{"id":186492,"date":"2014-12-03T04:00:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T18:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=186492"},"modified":"2014-12-03T04:00:46","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T18:00:46","slug":"motions-dismiss-tinian-election-contest-advisement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/motions-dismiss-tinian-election-contest-advisement\/","title":{"rendered":"Motions to dismiss Tinian election contest under advisement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja has placed under advisement Tinian mayor-elect Joey Patrick San Nicolas\u2019 and Commonwealth Election Commission\u2019s separate motions to dismiss the election contest filed by incumbent Tinian Mayor Ramon M. Dela Cruz. <\/p>\n

\"Commonwealth
Commonwealth Election Commission executive director Robert Guerrero talks with Chief Prosecutor Brian Flaherty and attorneys Mark Hanson and Matthew Gregory outside the courtroom of Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja shortly after a hearing yesterday afternoon on two motions to dismiss Tinian Mayor Ramon Dela Cruz\u2019s election contest. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If the evidentiary hearing pushes through today, Wednesday, at the Tinian Superior Court, it is expected to be all-day proceeding, if not longer, as the parties listed 41 witnesses.<\/p>\n

The evidentiary hearing will be about Dela Cruz\u2019s claims of irregularities: felony voters, double voting, and lack of ballot control. <\/p>\n

At yesterday\u2019s motions hearing, Chief Prosecutor Brian Flaherty argued as counsel for CEC, while attorney Matthew Gregory argued for San Nicolas. Attorney Mark B. Hanson argued Dela Cruz\u2019s opposition to the motions.<\/p>\n

In CEC\u2019s motion, Flaherty argued, among other things, that Dela Cruz has failed to demonstrate actual prejudice; has failed to prosecute his eligible voter challenge as provided by law; and lacks evidence to support his claims of irregularity or misconduct.<\/p>\n

Flaherty asserted that Dela Cruz\u2019s claim that seven ineligible voters were allowed to vote should be dismissed for want of prosecution due to its untimely nature.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that Public Law 17-11 clearly spells out a process for challenging a voter\u2019s eligibility\u2014a process that must be initiated before or on election day.<\/p>\n

Flaherty said it is the responsibility of CEC to strike the names of felon voters when notified or given certification by the court.<\/p>\n

He said Dela Cruz has access to the information on CEC\u2019s registered voters, yet he did not challenge the voters on the Tinian rolls prior or on the election day as provided by law.<\/p>\n

The Tinian people, he pointed out, should be proud because they saw how CEC operates during Monday\u2019s recount of votes.<\/p>\n

At the recounting, San Nicolas still prevailed over Dela Cruz, this time by nine votes, 705-696. <\/p>\n

San Nicolas of the Republic Party won by seven votes, 703-696, over Dela Cruz (Independent) during the first counting of votes. CEC has already certified that initial result.<\/p>\n

In San Nicolas\u2019 motion, Gregory said the Legislature obviously wanted to fix an election problem that happened in 2009 by coming with Public Law 17-11. He pointed out that the proper procedure for an election contest is to bring up the issue before or on election day.<\/p>\n

He said the Legislature set up the procedures for an election contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re supposed to attack voter qualifications on the day of the election or before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that by laying out different deadlines for voter qualification tests at the time of election and ones for an election contest, the Legislature intended to foreclose the consideration of voter qualification contests in an election contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is in keeping with the intent of the Legislature to prevent a repeat of the 2009 election contests involving questioning voters about their secret ballot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At this point, Gregory said, there\u2019s no way to determine that the seven individuals that Dela Cruz\u2019s questioned voted for San Nicolas or the mayor.<\/p>\n

Gregory said Dela Cruz\u2019s election contest should be barred for being untimely and should be dismissed.<\/p>\n

He said Public Law 7-11 clearly removes the court\u2019s jurisdiction in this election contest.<\/p>\n

Gregory said Dela Cruz seeks to characterize his claim as an attack on voting procedure and not voter qualifications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complaint, however, tells a different story,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In Dela Cruz\u2019s opposition to the motions, Hanson said CEC\u2019s actions and inaction, particularly with regard to the Tinian election, marred the political process and undermined the belief of the people of Tinian in a fair and democratic election.<\/p>\n

Hanson said it is from those flaws that the court will discern that the only available remedy is a new election.<\/p>\n

Hanson said CEC is a proper defendant when a voter challenges its conduct of an election.<\/p>\n

Hanson said Dela Cruz properly challenges CEC\u2019s failure to purge the voter registration lists of ineligible voters \u201cserving a sentence for a felony.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawyer cited that the Commonwealth Constitution and the Commonwealth Code recognize that any person \u201cserving a sentence for a felony cannot vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public Law 17-11 made numerous changes to the Commonwealth election law, he said, but these changes did not alter a court\u2019s jurisdiction to provide mandamus relief.<\/p>\n

Hanson said San Nicolas\u2019 motion refuses to recognize that however the Legislature has amended the election law, the law still provides for election contests that are not challenges to voter registration.<\/p>\n

Hanson said San Nicolas also \u201cattempts to boot strap\u201d the actual facts of Dela Cruz\u2019s complaint to fit his voter challenge exhaustion argument.<\/p>\n

Hanson said CEC is the \u201cgatekeeper of fairness\u201d and that it should not take a backseat by sitting down and waiting for people to file a complaint.<\/p>\n

Hanson described CEC\u2019s action as a \u201ccavalier attitude\u201d and said the election process is broken and the court should do something.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way to say who was really elected on Tinian. We don\u2019t know how many other felons voted,\u201d he said, adding that 42 percent of Tinian voters cast their votes off-island.<\/p>\n

Hanson said procedural errors led to complete doubt on the election results.<\/p>\n

In CEC\u2019s rebuttal, Flaherty said all humans commit mistake and that if there\u2019s error, \u201cthey do not rise to cavalier attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the contrary, Flaherty said, the court and the people of Tinian saw how CEC operates during the recounting of votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja has placed under advisement Tinian mayor-elect Joey Patrick…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":186496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[732,191,1275,1339],"class_list":["post-186492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-cec","tag-dela-cruz","tag-public-law","tag-san-nicolas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}