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‘CEC, lawmakers should make absentee voters feel better’
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Posted on Dec 18 2005
Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth Govendo has suggested that the Commonwealth Election Commission and the islands’ lawmakers do something to make “absentee ballot voters feel better than right now.”
Govendo advised CEC to seek “extra money” from the Legislature to have a safe storage for the absentee ballots.
“So in the future, you go and get these absentee ballots everyday, put down the date and time and count them,” said the judge during Friday’s hearing in which he announced his decision dismissing the election protest filed by Vicente Manglona Atalig against his closest rival, Rota Mayor-elect Joseph Songao Inos.
Govendo said the statute states that the absentee ballots shall be postmarked not later than the date of the election and shall be received by the commission not later than 14 days.
He said all absentee ballots shall be removed from the post office no later than 14 days after the election.
The statute says that commencing with the date when the absentee ballots are first sent out until 14 days after the election, no less than two persons shall go to the post office, Govendo said.
The word shall, the judge pointed out, means it is mandatory.
“However, in this case, that was not done. All the ballots were picked up on the Nov. 15,” he said.
Govendo said since CEC did not do that, the postmark becomes very important than ever.
“There’s got to be postmark,” he said. “The explanation that was given for not picking them up daily was we don’t have a place to store them safely.”
The judge asked the legislators to “turn around and take at look at this.”
Govendo granted Inos’ motion to dismiss Atalig’s lawsuit.
Atalig’s election challenge was not filed within the seven-day rule as required by the statute, said the judge as he explained that the motion is granted on jurisdictional grounds only.
Atalig filed the lawsuit seeking a court action to count the 72 unopened ballot envelopes. He sued the CEC and its commissioners.
Atalig, of the Republican Party, also named as a real party in interest co-defendant Joseph Inos of the Covenant who got 11 more votes than him.
