GEC reflects on lessons learned from Decision 2014
The GEC is already reviewing what improvements can be made for future elections.
November 28, 2014Updated: November 28, 2014
By KUAM News
By KUAM News
by Ken Quintanilla
Guam - It's been a week since the Guam Election Commission closed out the general election and certified the results. But the GEC is already reviewing what improvements can be made for future elections.
Guam Election Commission executive director Maria Pangelinan says there were a lot of lessons learned from Decision 2014. "It seems to be that the election went smoothly as people have been saying and there's still a lot of room for improvement for the GEC," she said.
And while Decision 2014 marked the first elections that used new tabulation equipment, Pangelinan says the testing of the three machines could be improved. "That may be one thing to look at, the timing of the test election between the test election and Election Day," she said.
The test election conducted the Sunday before Super Tuesday experienced minor challenges where one of the machines was reading inconsistent results. Preventative maintenance and a second test was done eventually fixing the problem. Concerns over the machines meanwhile did cause the Gutierrez-Gumataotao campaign to request for a manual audit after the general election. While a ballot reconciliation was done instead in order to allay any concerns, no major discrepancies were found.
"When the voters are assured the election is a fair and honest election and when a simple as a reconciliation for the votes the way we had done this past Friday, that's worth every minute of the hard work involved," she said.
Commissioners last week suggested a ballot reconciliation be done for some of the precincts after every election. And just as the GEC did receive 30 administrative complaints for the general election, Pangelinan hopes to train those who meet, greet and service the voters directly on how to better address the situation. "We should go back and revisit inside the precinct training, how precinct officials are to handle it," she said.
The GEC also hopes to publish a list of common administrative complaints and recommendations so the public is better informed. "So that more people will be educated or more people will know about administrative complaints and how to minimize these complaints as they occur," she said.
As part of the election comparative analysis report due to the Guam Legislature by June 30, the GEC is required to offer recommendations of changes in the mandates.
Guam - It's been a week since the Guam Election Commission closed out the general election and certified the results. But the GEC is already reviewing what improvements can be made for future elections.
Guam Election Commission executive director Maria Pangelinan says there were a lot of lessons learned from Decision 2014. "It seems to be that the election went smoothly as people have been saying and there's still a lot of room for improvement for the GEC," she said.
And while Decision 2014 marked the first elections that used new tabulation equipment, Pangelinan says the testing of the three machines could be improved. "That may be one thing to look at, the timing of the test election between the test election and Election Day," she said.
The test election conducted the Sunday before Super Tuesday experienced minor challenges where one of the machines was reading inconsistent results. Preventative maintenance and a second test was done eventually fixing the problem. Concerns over the machines meanwhile did cause the Gutierrez-Gumataotao campaign to request for a manual audit after the general election. While a ballot reconciliation was done instead in order to allay any concerns, no major discrepancies were found.
"When the voters are assured the election is a fair and honest election and when a simple as a reconciliation for the votes the way we had done this past Friday, that's worth every minute of the hard work involved," she said.
Commissioners last week suggested a ballot reconciliation be done for some of the precincts after every election. And just as the GEC did receive 30 administrative complaints for the general election, Pangelinan hopes to train those who meet, greet and service the voters directly on how to better address the situation. "We should go back and revisit inside the precinct training, how precinct officials are to handle it," she said.
The GEC also hopes to publish a list of common administrative complaints and recommendations so the public is better informed. "So that more people will be educated or more people will know about administrative complaints and how to minimize these complaints as they occur," she said.
As part of the election comparative analysis report due to the Guam Legislature by June 30, the GEC is required to offer recommendations of changes in the mandates.