by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Guam Election Commission executive director Maria Pangelinan says Decision 2014 so far has been a collaborative effort with both respective parties. "All the candidates are wanting to see a good election and the Guam election commission is doing what it can to get to do that," she explained.

This will be Pangelinan's first gubernatorial election. She says while it attracts more voters, mayoral elections are actually considered busier. "One of the things we're looking at is we actually have lower number of candidates for a gubernatorial election where we have two sets of candidates whereas in a mayoral election for the GEC it's a little bit busier because we have 19 sets of mayors and then seven sets of vice mayors so that increases the number of people we serve here," Pangelinan explained.

Meanwhile, as of June 30, the GEC had 47,301 registered voters. "We're hoping it climbs," she noted.

She adds volunteer voter registrars continue to come to replenish their stock of affidavits of registration.

From voter registrar to precinct officials, Pangelinan says the first official training will take place July 14 with the newly approved precinct official handbook consistent the new election reform law. "In the training we go through, we have props, we have the supply box, we have a set of ballots and we have signature rosters so during the training the precinct officials go through possibly as close as real life August 30th," she said.

And despite some questioning the need for a primary election considering certain party races are going unopposed, Pangelinan still encourages everyone who can vote to do so. "I hear people say if you don't vote, please don't complain and If you want your voice to be heard as to how Guam should be, how Guam should be today, not only tomorrow, please come out to vote," she said.