House OKs bills that allow online CEC meeting, suspend some election laws

The House of Representatives passed yesterday a Senate bill that suspends certain CNMI election laws for the Nov. 3 general elections to mitigate public health risks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The House also unanimously passed Senate Bill 21-67, SDI, that amends the election law to allow a member of the Commonwealth Election Commission to attend and vote in an official meeting using a telephone, video, or other electronic means. The bill, introduced by Sen. Sixto K. Igisomar (R-Saipan), will now go to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres for signature.

Except for Rep. Janet U. Maratita (R-Saipan), who was not present during the voting, all 19 House members voted to pass Senate Bill 21-68, SD2 HSI.

The bill, which was also introduced by Igisomar and recently passed by the Senate, will adjust the early voting time and add more polling places. It will extend the hours of operations for early voting and election day.

The legislation will also authorize the Commonwealth Election Commission to collect absentee ballots seven days before the general election and 14 days after.

The bill will give CEC the flexibility to make changes to the election procedures if necessary to mitigate the public health risks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

CEC executive director Julita A. Villagomez, CEC administrative officer Kayla Igitol, CEC legal counsel Jonathan Robert Glass Jr., and Office of the Public Auditor counsel Ashley Kost were present at the session to respond to some of the lawmakers’ questions.

Igitol stated that they have coordinated their plans with the CNMI COVID-19 Task Force and that election workers will be wearing face masks, face shields, and gloves on election day.

Rep. Joseph Lee Pan Guerrero (R-Saipan) expressed concern that there’s lack of time with this bill because it has to go to the Senate again and that the election is approaching.

In a later interview, Rep. Tina Sablan (D-Saipan) said the only thing that they changed in the bill have to do with the early voting period for Saipan and the Northern Islands, Rota, and Tinian, plus changes in the collection and processing of absentee ballots.

“What we’re changing is to extend the period that we can accept these absentee ballots. But the rest of this language is already in the current law,” Sablan said.

She said the other thing that they are changing is the requirement that all five commissioners have to get together to inspect each of these ballots. “We are allowing them to designate two people. It could be two commissioners, it could be two of the staff who, with OPA, will then do this work of processing absentee ballots. But we’re giving that flexibility to CEC,” Sablan said.