Low turnout plagues polls

Low turnout hung over polling stations throughout Saipan yesterday, the first time local voters got the opportunity to elect a congressional delegate.

Approximately 13,000 voters registered to participate in this historic election, which drew nine candidates. Of the voters, about 12,000 were expected at the polls yesterday, and the rest were to vote absentee.

As of 3:30pm, barely 6,000 voters had cast their ballots, according to Frances Sablan, chairwoman of the Commonwealth Election Commission. The approximate turnout includes some 650 absentee ballots the Election Commission had received from off island. The commission requires mailed-in ballots to be postmarked Nov. 4 but it will continue to receive absentee ballots until Nov. 18.

There was no immediate word on the turnout rate for Tinian and Rota.

The counting of the ballots was scheduled to start midnight last night. Final results of yesterday’s election will be known on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008, when the absentee ballots are counted.

Reasons for low turnout

While many on Saipan chose to simply not come, Sablan said there is also a good number of voters who showed up at the polls, only to find out their names had been taken off of the voter registry because they failed to re-register after going missing last election.

Work may have kept some voters in the private sector out of the voting booth in the early hours of the election, Sablan added.

While government employees got Election Day off with the simultaneous observance of Citizenship Day, most private companies remained open for business. Sablan said she expected the turnout to improve after normal business hours.

Another possible reason for the low turnout, Sablan said, is the number of people who have left the island and who may not have bothered to apply for absentee ballots or to complete the application process.

“I think the interest in this election is there,” Sablan said, “and I know the candidates did their share in trying to reach their supporters. But there’s also a number of reasons voters could not come—it’s either this or that.”

High turnout in others

House Floor Leader Joseph Camacho, who monitored the election in Tanapag on behalf of his candidate, Gregorio “Kilili” Sablan, said the slow Election Day was expected because there was only one seat on the line.

Still, he said the turnout was not bad, at least in the northern villages of Tanapag and San Roque, which had 70 percent of the voters cast their ballots as of 5pm yesterday.

In Kagman, 1,369 voters turned up out of the estimated 1,800 registered voters, representing a 76 percent turnout. The same turnout rate was noted in Oleai, where, as of 5pm, a total of 515 voted out of 720 registered voters.

Garapan, one of the largest election precincts, however, reflected the slow movement observed in most polls across the island. As of 4pm, just a little over 50 percent of Garapan’s 2,000 registered voters had come out.

Ballot hand count

House Speaker Arnold I. Palacios said he was surprised the funds the Legislature appropriated for this election did not make it to the election board and that, as a result, the ballots would be counted manually.

“It’s unfortunate this happened,” Palacios said. “The Legislature did its job by finding the money for this election. But, at the end of the day, we’ll just have to make do with what we have. We have done it [hand count] before; it will just take more time. Fortunately, we only have one race this election.”

Some candidates also expressed disappointment, but said they trust the Election Commission to keep the election process fair and accurate.

Incumbent Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio, from whose office the election funds were supposed to be taken, said he was unaware the money was not made available to the commission. But he also echoed Palacios’ statement, saying, “Whether the ballots will be counted by machine or by hand doesn’t really matter. The people will understand.”

For his part, independent candidate John Oliver Gonzales said, “I respect the decision of the Commonwealth Election Commission. Ultimately, they’re expected to do their job right.”

Meanwhile, candidate Chong Won apparently was not clear about the source of funding for the federal election. “Isn’t this supposed to be paid for with federal funds?” he asked. “Anyway, if there’s no money, there’s no money. What can we do?”

Peaceful elections

Except for minor bickering by some parties and emotional voters who failed to find their names, the historic election went smoothly and peacefully.

Department of Public Safety’s patrol commander Sgt. Joe Saures told Saipan Tribune last night that the election on Saipan went well.

DPS did not receive any reports of untoward incidents on Tinian and Rota as well, according to Saures, who is the designated chief of the DPS election operation.

“The only problem that we encountered was the parties…the parties that were soliciting for votes alongside the roadways,” he said.

Saures said they had to remind campaigners to keep to a 300-foot distance from polling places. He said no one was arrested.

“Everything went well very peacefully,” he said. “It was just the parties going back and forth, bickering [and] teasing each other. That’s normal,” Saures said.

Police officers, however, had to keep a close eye on these to prevent people from ending up fighting, he added.

Saures said these incidents, which he described as minor, happened at San Vicente Elementary School and Garapan Elementary School.

DPS deployed 23 police officers on Saipan to maintain peace and order. At least one police officer was assigned at each polling place.

DPS earlier reminded the public that, pursuant to Public Law 15-52, any political activity within a 300-foot radius of polling places is prohibited during Election Day between 7am to 7pm.

Missing names

Sablan, the Election Commission chairperson, echoed the police’s assessment, saying the election went very smoothly.

However, there were a lot of questions and referrals coming from the different election precincts, she said. The problem, Sablan said, was about names that were missing from the roster.

“There were some voters who were referred to the central office because their names were not on the roster. A lot of those cases show that they failed to vote last year,” she said.

Sablan said the problem occurred because these people failed to rectify the problem by registering anew with the Election Commission before the deadline.

“When they failed to vote last year, their names were automatically taken out of the roster. There’s a good number [of incidents like these], maybe 50 of them on Saipan,” Sablan said.

She said some voters became emotional when their names were missing.

“Some of them accepted the matter gracefully, yet others…one almost poked the eye of our staff because he was just too irate. Some voters take it to the extreme,” Sablan said.

Around 9am, election officers at Oleai Elementary School reported that at least two individuals could not cast their vote because their names were not on the list because they failed to register or re-register.

Election supervisor Edward Villagomez said they instructed those individuals to verify their names at the Election Commission’s headquarters.

Villagomez said they encountered more of these later in the afternoon. He said that aside from these problems the conduct of the polls was peaceful and orderly.

At the Municipal Council polling place (District 2), Election supervisor Antonio A. Benavente said they also encountered minor problems like people who failed to re-register. Out of the 1,005 total registered voters, 624 had already cast their votes by 5pm.[B][I] (with Nazario Rodriguez Jr.)[/I][/B]