by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - With five months until the primary election, no consensus has been made regarding legislation to reform the island's election process. However, the Committee on Election Reform has called a special meeting with hopes to discuss the importance of reforming the island's election laws and how to move forward from the veto of Bill 413.

KUAM News asked Senator Dennis Rodriguez Jr. if every time there's an election in the future and allegations and irregularities arose, would we change the law, conduct an audit do a recount of the votes. He replied, "Yes, it should be, I think so. I think if there's a valid complaint, if there's valid reasons to go back and do an audit or do a recount I think that needs to be done and I think it's been done in the past." The chairman for the committee says although there's an attempt to conduct an override on the vetoed Bill 413, he's calling for a special meeting to see what needs to be done to further ensure our future elections are carried out "where its transparent and where people are not disenfranchised".

He added, "We have an election in five months and so a lot of the provisions in Bill 413 are good provisions that will facilitate the Guam Election Commission and how they carry out the election, so we need to address that. We just need to move forward and move pass this impasse."

Governor Eddie Calvo vetoed the bill because of a provision that would require an audit of the 2010 General Election. Calvo has repeatedly said the election was over and criticized Democrats for including the amendment implying it was the work of Calvo's Democratic gubernatorial opponent and former governor, Carl Gutierrez. Gutierrez responded in a letter Thursday to Calvo, saying he's made the issue about the two of them rather than about the thousands who were allegedly disenfranchised in the recent election. Calvo's communications director, Troy Torres, however, fired back that Gutierrez's letter is just a smoke screen, adding that if the democrats really cared about election reform, they would have started the process back after the botched 1998 election when dead people were voting.

Former senator Bob Klitzie meanwhile has thrown his comments into the debate, saying Bill 413 isn't an election reform bill; rather it's the Legislature acting as though it's a court of law wanting to take over the judicial and executive functions, too. "There's already a challenge to the last election pending in the Superior Court. Legislatures should pass bills, confirm legislative appointments and appropriate money and not recast itself as a court," he stated.

He cites lawmakers' recent involvement in issues surrounding GGARP/SPIMA and the Mayors Council of Guam along with the recent debacle with the Guam Memorial Hospital and TakeCare. Ultimately, he believes the election is over and its time to let the courts do their job, saying, "The Legislature is taking a position that no matter what the Election Commission does and the Election Commission conducted its own investigation, referred complaints to the United States Attorney and the Attorney General and did other things to go back and examine the election. What the bill does is really require a recount."

Gutierrez and his former running mate, Frank Aguon, Jr., filed the lawsuit in court asking that the results be null and void because of alleged election discrepancies. Aguon however has asked the court to remove himself from having anything further to do with the lawsuit. In the meantime, the Guam Election Commission's board and management have been invited to attend next week's special meeting; likewise the public is invited to also participate.

The special meeting on Bill 413 is scheduled for Wednesday, April 11 at 2pm at the Legislature's Public Hearing Room.