CEC: No irregularity in Tinian vote count

The Commonwealth Election Commission has denied any irregularity that led to Joey Patrick San Nicolas being declared Tinian mayor by a mere seven votes.

Chief Prosecutor Brian Flaherty, counsel for CEC, asserted that Tinian Mayor Ramon M. Dela Cruz has failed to demonstrate actual prejudice in his complaint, making a recount necessary for the proper determination of the contest.

Dela Cruz failed to prosecute his eligible voter challenge in the manner provided by law, said Flaherty in CEC’s answer and a motion to dismiss the mayor’s lawsuit.

Flaherty said Dela Cruz lacks evidence to support his claims of irregularity or misconduct and the court should dismiss CEC from his complaint since the commission is not a proper defendant in an election contest under CNMI law.

The chief prosecutor said Dela Cruz’s claim based upon the possibility of seven ineligible voters being allowed to vote should be dismissed for want of prosecution due to its untimely nature.

He cited that Public Law 17-11 clearly spells out a process for challenging a voter’s eligibility, a process that must be initiated prior to or on election day.

Flaherty said Dela Cruz, like other members of the CNMI public, had access to the information to properly challenge these seven voters’ eligibility prior to election day.

“Their names would have been on publicly-available eligible voter lists,” he said.

If they requested an absentee ballot, their names would also have been on that list.

Flaherty said Dela Cruz chose not to avail himself of this information in time to raise a proper challenge pursuant to the statute.

No challenges to voters on the Tinian rolls were raised at all, Flaherty said.

“Should there be any truth to contestant’s claims with regard to the eligibility of voters, the time for those complaint has come and gone and this court should dismiss those claims for want of prosecution,” he said.

Moreover, Flaherty said, even if complaints based on voter eligibility could be heard at this time, Dela Cruz’s claims should be dismissed because he demonstrates no actual prejudice.

“Yes, the vote difference between contestant and defendant San Nicolas is seven votes, the same number as the number of votes challenged. But no evidence is given that those seven voters (whomever they are) actually voted for one candidate or another, thus actually prejudicing contestant,” he said

Flaherty said Dela Cruz’s claim is based on the assumption that these seven votes cast votes for San Nicolas.

CEC denied Dela Cruz’s assertion that it failed to count all valid votes in the race for the mayor of Tinian and Aguiguan. It denied Dela Cruz’s assertion that it allowed voters to cast more than one vote each in the race for the mayor of Tinian and Aguiguan.

CEC also denied that it allowed felons serving sentences to cast votes in the race.

Flaherty again asserted that any challenges to a voter’s eligibility must be taken up before election day or on election day, and thus Dela Cruz’s assertions, even if true or even if it resulted in actual prejudice to him, is an untimely challenge to the eligibility of these “seven voters.”

CEC denied that it committed any error in its lawful manipulation of ballots, and denied that there was any improper “adulterating” of ballots.

CEC denied that there was any mishandling of the ballots or absentee voters and denied that it allowed more than one vote per voter in the race.

On Wednesday, Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja ordered that the recount of the ballots for Tinian mayor will proceed today, Monday, at Tinian Superior Court. Naraja said the evidentiary hearing and the hearing on motions to dismiss Dela Cruz’s election contest will be on Wednesday.

Naraja said if the tabulating machines will not be available that day, the alternative is manual recounting.

San Nicolas also filed a separate motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Mark Hanson, counsel for Dela Cruz, said Wednesday that the evidentiary hearing will be about Dela Cruz’s claims on irregularities—felony voters, double voting, and lack of ballot control.

Hanson said San Nicolas filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on different grounds as CEC’s, and that they don’t believe it has merits.

CEC has already officially declared San Nicolas of the Republican Party as the winner of the Nov. 4 mayor election by seven votes over Dela Cruz (Independent), 703 to 696.

In his lawsuit, Dela Cruz alleged several irregularities during the election, including a discrepancy between the votes cast for Tinian mayor tabulated on Tinian and the tabulation on Saipan of the votes physically cost on Tinian for Tinian mayor.