NMI to choose: Kerry or Bush?

Who would the CNMI electorate vote for as president in the upcoming federal election—incumbent George W. Bush Jr. or Sen. John Kerry?

That is a question that a Northern Marianas College’s Political Science class wants answered. Toward this end, the group is now organizing a mock election that, for the first time, would give CNMI voters the chance to participate in a presidential election—albeit a mock process.

“We’re holding this election to make a statement that as U.S. citizens, we have the right to vote,” said 21-year-old Raena Bermudes, a member of the class. “I think it’s very important because whatever decision we make affects everyone.”

Bermudes, who heads the class’ public relations committee, urged registered CNMI voters to cast their ballots in the mock polls at the Joeten Kiyu Public Library’s community room on Oct. 30, from 8am to 7pm.

All registered voters in the Commonwealth as of Sept. 12, 2004 would be eligible to vote, Bermudes said.

Besides the polling place on Saipan, Bermudes said her class’ counterpart at the NMC-Tinian would put up a polling center for Tinian’s registered voters. She said the class is communicating with its counterpart on Rota to have another polling center on that island.

Bermudes urged CNMI voters to participate in the electoral process, saying this would be a strong expression of support to a proposed congressional initiative to allow U.S. citizens in insular areas to participate in the presidential elections.

Donna Christian-Christensen, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ delegate to the U.S. Congress, has introduced a resolution that seeks to amend the U.S. Constitution to extend voting rights to at least 4.3 million U.S. citizens living in the territories.

She had said that the right to vote is a fundamental one that should be afforded to all U.S. citizens of voting age.

Currently, residents of the Northern Marianas, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands—including those who have relocated to the territories from the mainland United States—do not vote for president. The last four each send a non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.

News reports earlier said Christensen drew cheers at the Democratic National Convention sometime in July when she echoed the clamor by U.S. citizens in offshore areas to vote for their commander-in-chief, amid deployment of soldiers from these territories to Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Courant report earlier said that a lawsuit filed in Puerto Rico before the 2000 elections, which asserted that U.S. citizens of the islands should be entitled to vote for U.S. president, obtained a favorable decision from a federal court judge, who ordered the government to prepare ballots. The decision, however, was reversed on appeal, the report noted.