by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - The Guam Election Commission continued handcounting ballots this morning as part of the audit of the 2010 general election. Commissioners voted last week to only handcount Precinct 15b from Barrigada, which was one of two areas noted in the legislative intent where areas of fraud were alleged. If there was a difference in results of more than 10 percent than commissioners would continue with the other precincts. If not, then the audit would be complete.

"We want to improve the process, so in going straight to 15b we can by the process that we are following, we should be able to report the findings in a very appropriate way," he said.

Executive director Maria Pangelinan adds staff also started counting provisional ballots from the 2010 election. Of the 168 provisional ballots received, 44 were purged without notifying the voters prior and per the legislative intent need to be counted. Of those ballots, for the gubernatorial race, the GEC counted 22 votes for Gutierrez-Aguon team, 19 for Calvo-Tenorio, two overvotes with one ballot envelope left blank.