‘Election count was a disaster’

Arnold I. Palacios

“Never in the history of CNMI elections has members of all three islands have to wait until 7am, 11am the next morning for results. It’s unheard of,” said gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios as he expressed his disappointment in this year’s general election.

To put it mildly, Palacios said, this year’s general election—specifically the tallying of votes—was a disaster. Vote counting in the CNMI usually lasts until the early morning hours of Nov. 9 and may sometimes be done by 7am, but this year’s tallying lasted until around noon.

Speaking in a press conference last Thursday, Palacios said that not only was the delayed tallying an “unfortunate” event for the community, but it also raises concerns about the integrity of the election as a whole.

“It was a disaster, to put it mildly. I’m just being honest about it. We didn’t raise hell about it, but we did raise concerns. I have never experienced anything like this and I don’t think our community has in the past. I hope everybody on the Election Commission board knows that the people are concerned,” he said.

Palacios noted the times when the CNMI had to manually count the ballots and even then, the commission didn’t take that long to tally the votes.

“We sat there, everybody on the three islands sat there, waiting for results from 7pm to 11am the next day. That has never occurred [before]. I remember when we had to manually count ballots, by 2am, 3am, we knew who won and who lost,” he said.

Palacios also noted the concerns raised about a locked ballot box that had to be cut open, stating that that it is unheard of.

“I watched that locked ballot box being cut. That too has never, in the history of elections, ever happened. The Democrats and even our team actually questioned them about that,” Palacios stated.

With today’s technologies, Palacios said this year’s general election was an anomaly and hopes that the runoff will not turn out the same way. “This is unheard of with the technologies that we have today. It was a real anomaly. I hope the runoff isn’t the same way,” Palacios said.

The runoff election, set for Nov. 25, is expected to turn out differently as votes will be manually counted. Palacios said the only hope is that there is accountability for those counting these ballots.

“I hope that OPA and the Attorney General’s Office are on top of this, to make sure that there’s no question about the integrity of the runoff election,” he said.

As for the Democratic Party’s recent announcement of an Open Government Act request regarding the general election, Palacios said he is glad that the party is taking this initiative.

“There’s still this question on the integrity [of the election] and I’m glad that the Democrats have asked for a review of that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Palacios continues to urge members of the community to support him, and his running mate, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, in the runoff election on Nov. 25. The pair is promising a stable, sustainable leadership.

“We are stable, we are sustainable. Together, we have the experience to navigate challenges and problems to aid in the recovery of our government. We’re not glitz and glamour. We’re here to provide efficient leadership to the Commonwealth. I want to thank the people for their support in this past election and even for supporting us throughout our political career,” he said.