Calvo signs bill to streamline primary election

by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Time is of the essence and about 24 hours after lawmakers passed legislation accommodating an independent candidate on the Decision 2012 Primary Election ballot, Governor Eddie Calvo quickly signed the bill into law today helping the Guam Election Commission move forward with preparing the for September 1 primary.

Lawmakers quickly passed Bill 488 Monday authorizing GEC to reconfigure the Primary Election ballot to accommodate independent candidates. And according to Governor Calvo, he's pleased lawmakers took action. "So again, the good news is that issue, that defect has been corrected," he said.

The bill was transmitted to his office early Tuesday morning and after review was signed into law. "But the concern I've had since the very beginning when the original bill was passed for dual sides in the event of a third party, of course that concern became fact," he added.

GEC executive director Maria Pangelinan says she's happy action was taken quickly to accommodate congressional independent candidate Jonathan Diaz on the Primary Election ballot. "It's refreshing to know that we can work together and work independently to get these things done," she said.

However, after initially approving a ballot design during last Saturday's GEC meeting, they must now get a move on in order to meet deadlines such as sending out all final Primary Election ballots under the uniformed and overseas citizens absentee voting act by July 18 - 45 days before the primary. "We anticipate calling and reconvening the Commission to approve a new ballot design," said Pangelinan.

And while the two-sided ballot was made in order to prevent crossover votes, she reminds voters when deciding who to vote for. "Based on Title 3 the Election Code of Guam, once you vote for independent you cannot vote for republican or democrat," she said.

in addition to more than 4,000 spoiled ballots from the 2010 election of cross-over votes, she's also going to use the 2008 primary election with the last mayoral race as a benchmark to work with. Moving forward, as far as challenges, the GEC will now plan for contingencies and believes the current law is still sufficient for a good election. "Yes, definitely we can still have a good election. And the cooperation that we have seen with the Legislature and the governor, I think we're on our way to a good one," she shared.

Since the Bill 488 was signed into law, the GEC will reconvene its meeting.