Governor plans veto of Election Reform Bill

by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - It may be back to the drawing board for the Guam Legislature and the Guam Election Commission, as Governor Eddie Calvo says he plans to veto Bill 413. Lawmakers had previously passed the Election Reform Bill 8-6, straight down party lines.

Bill 413: reforming the election process or revisiting Decision 2010? In an interview with KUAM News today, the island's chief executive said the 2010 election is over and implied the bill was orchestrated by his former Democratic opponent , former governor Carl Gutierrez. Gutierrez ran with former Senator Frank Aguon, Jr. The two filed a lawsuit challenging the results and Guam Election Commission's handling of the election process claiming it was rife with discrepancies.

Calvo believes the bill is more about politics than progress. Among the 50 amendments included in Bill 413, one that mandates an audit of the 2010 election/ "It's an election year now, it's partisan politics. It's unfortunate you can call it whatever you want.  We've talked to our lawyers there's a definite impact if this legislation were to pass, it's dangerous, but the bottom line it is this type of mischief that has been indicative of the Gutierrez camp since the last election and this is just a continuation I hope he can just focus in whether he wants to be a delegate or a governor," he said.

Majority Leader Rory Respicio has been pushing for the audit of the 2010 election, saying it was just too close to ignore and defends the discrepancies need to be addressed in order to reform Guam's election process. "I'm certainly one that says you always have to move forward...and maybe if the reverse were true, governor Calvo would be the one pushing to have these audits of the 2010 election. But notwithstanding who's behind this desire to want to make sure that we have real and fair elections or this desire to want to audit the 2010 election, I think the people deserve to know the truth," she said.

Meanwhile, as the election lawsuit continues to move through the Superior Court, Gutierrez's former running mate hHas asked his attorney to be removed from any association or affiliation with any ongoing court challenge that has "any semblance of the Gutierrez-Aguon 2010 gubernatorial election". As a consequence of Aguon's request, Attorney David Lujan had filed a motion with the court to be removed from the litigation. A hearing has yet to be scheduled on his request.

Respicio said, "My plea to Governor Calvo is that he's so hell-bent on vetoing this bill; please do it as soon as possible, transmit that veto to the Guam Legislature, so we can work on an override."

It takes 10 votes for an override, which means one or possibly two republican lawmakers would have to change their position on the legislation.  Also, although Senator Respicio is requesting that Senator Dennis Rodriguez, Jr. call for an immediate oversight hearing with the GEC so Governor Calvo can hear the problems with the 2010 election, Rodriguez told KUAM News today that he would wait until after the governor takes action on bill 413.

The Democratic Party of Guam is also not pleased with Governor Calvo's plans to veto the legislation, as a press release stating "Governor Eddie Calvo had a chance to be a statesman today—to determine what he called, "The will of the people" thereby laying this election to rest.  Instead, he leaves us with one question, if the Guam Election Commission is willing to face a full audit of its work, what is Eddie Calvo so afraid of?  Calvo's forthcoming veto of Bill No. 413 protects an election process so flawed it can't tell us how many ballots were printed, cast or counted. This veto asks us to forget what the GEC called fraud--all in an attempt to put this election in our past, but the past cannot rest on a lie."

The chair of the Democratic Party of Guam is former governor Gutierrez.