At Precinct 5, no hitch in switch to Chacha

The 2022 general elections went off without a hitch at Precinct 5, with over 700 voters going to their designated polling sites to cast their votes.

As of 3pm yesterday, poll attendants working at the Precinct 5 voting polls at the Chacha Oceanview Middle School cafeteria calculated that over 700 voters have already cast their votes starting from 7am.

Due to the large number of constituents within Precinct 5, the district was divided into two; Precinct 5-1 and 5-2.

For Precinct 5-1, they saw their largest number of voters at around 11am to 12pm, with a total of 71 voters walking in within the hour.

As for Precinct 5-2, their largest number of voters was seen from around 1pm to 2pm, with 100 individuals going to the polling site to vote.

According to the poll supervisors, who asked that they not be identified, Election Day went smoothly for the most part.

They stated that, although everyone had gotten used to the Kagman Community Center being the poll site in prior elections, the switch to Chacha Middle School was welcomed.

“We didn’t have any issues today. Voters came and went and they complied with all the poll rules. I would say it was a great election day,” a poll supervisor said.

At around 2:40pm, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and his running mate, Sen. Vinnie F. Sablan (R-Saipan) showed up at Precinct 5 to support fellow Republican and House of Representative candidate Thomas John Manglona, who came out to cast his vote.

According to Manglona, he decided to cast his vote on Election Day instead of availing of early voting because he wanted to spend an extra time in the community campaigning.

“At the end of the day, what matters is I did everything that I could to put myself out there, I put all my cards on the table, and now it’s up to the people to decide,” he said.

Torres also gave a brief comment, stating that he is excited for the turnout and hopes that everyone came out to exercise their right to vote.

Sablan echoed Torres’ sentiment and added that he hopes people will give him and Torres the chance to serve them for the next four years.

Precinct 4

Precinct 4’s voting area at the Legislature was very laidback, with a consistent number of voters coming in throughout the day, ranging from 11 to 20 voters per hour. The largest number of voters for Precinct 4 was at around 2pm to 3pm, with 37 constituents coming in to cast their votes.

At around 3pm press time, Precinct 4 saw about 159 voters in total.

“As always, Precinct 4 had a very laidback Election Day. We didn’t face that many problems and we didn’t have that many complaints. We’re excited for the outcome of this election and we just hope that it’s a fair and safe election,” said Precinct 4 poll worker Malia Johnson.