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Election turnout seen at an estimated 60.79 percent
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Posted on Nov 05 2020
With 11,258 voters that have been counted so far and with a total of 18,519 registered voters in the CNMI as of Oct. 7, the Commonwealth Election Commission is looking at an estimated 60.79% turnout in last Tuesday’s general election.
So far, the CEC counted a total of 8,369 early votes that were cast, plus 1,625 absentee voters. The rest were votes cast on election day itself.
According to CEC administrative officer Kayla Igitol, the commission is preparing for the next batch of absentee votes that are coming in on Nov. 17.
CEC board chair Jesus Sablan earlier said that they’re not going to certify the results of their tabulation last Wednesday morning as official until they count the remaining absentee ballots that are coming on Nov. 17. He estimates that there are 50-100 remaining absentee ballots.
Igitol said that CEC will immediately process and tabulate the incoming absentee ballots, and that’s when they can certify the election results.
Igitol said that this year’s election was smooth and she attributes it to the new counting machines that she said made a difference. The counting ended at approximately 5:30am, which is earlier than the last election when they ended at approximately 8am.
“I’d take this anytime, rather than what we had two years ago. But other than that, the election went smooth. …[It] was slow [at first] but it picked up at the end, so there were not many problems,” Igitol said.
A pause occurred in the middle of counting the ballots, and Igitol stated that the ballot that was fed through the machine was crumpled up and the paper jammed but that was easily resolved.
As for the rejected votes, Igitol stated that the votes are run through the machine and then if it’s picked up that it’s an over-vote, a blank ballot, or has an unclear marking, then the machine will “spit out” the paper and it will be brought to the commission’s table where the commission will review it.
