The 21-day early voting for Saipan and the Northern Islands will start on Oct. 13, while the seven-day early voting for Tinian and Rota will begin on Oct. 27, according to Commonwealth Election Commission executive director Julita A. Villagomez yesterday. <\/p>\n
Villagomez said early voting for Northern Islands only supposed to start last Sept. 19, but CEC did not push through with it after the Legislature passed a bill that suspended certain election laws.
\nWith respect to designated polling places on Saipan for early voting, the executive director said the only confirmed site is the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe for precincts 2, 3A and 3B, and also for the Northern Islands, Tinian, and Rota.
\nVillagomez said the other polling places they are planning to designate are Youth Center in Koblerville for Precinct 1, Legislature in Capital Hill for 4A, 4B; Tanapag Center for 4C; and Kagman Youth Center for Precinct 5. <\/p>\n
She said they have already requested to use the Youth Center in Koblerville, Legislature, Tanapag Youth Center, and Kagman Youth Center.
\nVillagomez said they don\u2019t have a problem with designating polling places during election day as schools are closed during the election day, being a holiday.
\nVillagomez said for Tinian and Rota early voting, they received a call from a Commonwealth Ports Authority official yesterday morning that the airports on the two islands are still questionable to be designated as polling places. <\/p>\n
She said at the time they\u2019re considering the airports as designated polling places during early voting, they were thinking it\u2019s going to be three weeks, but now it\u2019s seven days.
\nVillagomez said now they have to go look elsewhere because according to the CPA official, the Tinian airport has typhoon water damage.
\nThe Tinian airport has two buildings for the terminal. CEC eyed one building that is not being used.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking at other places like the youth center or the court for one week. So it\u2019s not clear yet where we\u2019re [going to] hold early voting on Tinian. We have to comply with COVID-19 Task Force,\u201d Villagomez said. <\/p>\n
On Tinian, early voting used to be at the Tinian Department of Public Safety. The general elections on Tinian is always in the cafeteria of the Tinian Elementary School.
\nRegarding early voting on Rota, Villagomez said it\u2019s not confirmed yet whether it\u2019s going to be on the island\u2019s airport.
\nShe emphasized that Rota and Tinian, however, can still do early voting on Saipan within the 21-day period.<\/p>\n
Villagomez said for Rota early voting, they\u2019re eyeing to move back to the Rota Northern Marianas College, which is also the polling place for the general elections.
\nShe said Rota DPS used to be the site of early voting, but there\u2019s renovation ongoing.
\n\u201cWe need bigger space. So that we can comply with COVID-19 Task Force,\u201d she said. The executive director reminded voters that the last day to apply for absentee voting is Oct. 9. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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