GEC purging non-voters from registry

While the General Election may be over and done with, the Guam Election Commission says they still have a full plate to keep them occupied until 2020.

GEC executive director Maria Pangelinan says the GEC has already begun to purge - a process that removes voters who haven't cast ballots in the last two elections from the voter registry. So if you haven't voted in a couple elections, keep an eye on your mailbox. "We will write them two letters, one will say that we're going to take them off the list," Pangelinan said. "The second letter will say we took them off the list."

Voters who have been purged must re-register to vote with the GEC.

Pangelinan says the GEC will also turn its eye towards the anonymous negative attack ads that plagued the 2018 elections. She says GEC staff will attend a Council of State Governments cyber security conference and a Council on Government Ethics Laws campaign finance conference. The conferences are December 9-12 in Philadelphia.

As you may recall a series of KUAM News investigative reports earlier this year revealed a slew of campaign finance violations from Congressman-elect Mike San Nicolas, former Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks, Senators Dennis Rodriguez, Jim Espaldon and Tommy Morrison.

"That's one of the projects that we have," Pangelinan said of campaign finance review. "We don't have time to review them when they're turned in - for example the preliminary for the primary is due ten days before the primary. So during that time we're hot and heavy with preparation for the primary, so no time to review campaign finance reports.

Pangelinan said the GEC plans to lobby senators to modify reporting requirements for campaign finance reports. "We're proposing that the reports are due quarterly, so that we can start looking at them early on," Pangelinan said.

Such is life for the GEC between elections, and we asked Pangelinan what letter grade she would give the GEC for the 2018 elections. "I think I give the staff an A," Pangelinan said. "It's not the Chamoru tradition to be banidosa, so I'm having a hard time trying to figure that one out - but the staff did a really good job."