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Midpoint tally of absentee ballots urged
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Posted on Nov 08 2005
Respected businessman and Republican National committeeman David M. Sablan called on the Election Commission yesterday to hold a midpoint tabulation of absentee ballots this Saturday, a week after the general elections.
“This is in the interest of the public. Maybe the Board of Election might wish to consider having a midpoint tally of the absentee ballots,” said Sablan.
He said that normally at the end of the first week after the elections, it should be known already how many ballots have been received and accounted for.
“The public needs to know if there’s sufficient votes to declare somebody governor,” he said
He said the wait for the Nov. 19 absentee ballot tabulation “is agonizing.”
“Somebody is going to have a heart attack waiting for that result,” he quipped.
Election officials were not immediately available yesterday for comments.
Based on the initial tally, three candidates are neck to neck in the race for the CNMI highest elective post: Covenant Party’s Benigno R. Fitial with 3,497; independent candidate Heinz S. Hofschneider, 3,371; and Republican Party’s Gov. Juan N. Babauta, 3,228.
Democratic Party’s Froilan C. Tenorio, who received 2,256 votes, has conceded to the top three candidates.
Commonwealth Election Commission data show that 1,527 absentee voting packets were mailed out, while an additional 75 packets were issued personally to voters.
There are 567 absentee voters from Precinct 1, where Hofschneider posted his biggest lead during the count of poll votes.
Precinct 2 has 53 absentee voters; Precinct 3 has 297; and Precinct 4 has 248 absentee voters.
A total 161 absentee voters registered on Tinian. Rota has 276 absentee voters.
