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Bill that suspends certain election laws goes to Torres
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Posted on Sep 21 2020
The Senate accepted during Friday’s session the House of Representatives’ amendments to a Senate bill that suspends certain CNMI election laws for the Nov. 3 general election to mitigate public health risks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senate Bill 21-68, SD2, SD1 now goes to Gov. Ralph DLG. Torres for passage into law.
All eight senators present Friday voted to accept the House amendments; Sen. Francisco Borja (R-Tinian) was excused from the session.
Igisomar
The bill’s author, Sen. Sixto K. Igisomar (R-Saipan), said in an interview Friday that the election bill was a combination of work between the Commonwealth Election commission, his office, the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations, and the leadership of Senate President Victor Hocog in collaboration with the governor, and attorneys of the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Public Auditor.
As a result, Igisomar said, they were able to review with Senate lead counsel Antonette Villagomez all the other legislations and global best practices for an election during a pandemic.
The senator said he is glad that the House passed it quickly with amendments that were not detrimental to the intent of the bill. “We believe it’s aligned with the intent of the bill. …[I’m glad] we were able to just pass it…because time is an issue,” Igisomar said.
The bill will adjust the early voting time and add more polling places. It will extend the hours of operations for early voting and election day. The legislation will also authorize CEC to collect absentee ballots seven days before the general election and 14 days after. The bill will give the CEC flexibility to make changes to the election procedures if necessary to mitigate the public health risks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
