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Guam - The Guam Election Commission is set to meet this evening and reported only minor issues today. According to executive director Maria Pangelinan they only received a few calls of minor concerns from voters and precinct officials today. The GEC was initially set to meet at 11am and 3pm in the event any major problems had surfaced but both were cancelled.          


Pangelinan says some of the minor concerns included a leaking air conditioner at the Tamuning Precinct at Tamuning Elementary School, along with some voters showing up to the polls but their names were not on the voter roster. As for homebound voting, the GEC stopped receiving requests by noon and expects to conduct its last homebound service at 7:30 tonight. Pangelinan meanwhile says none of the precincts reported voters having to wait, but adds she is hearing that voter turnout is low in certain parts of the island and that the rainy weather may have been a factor.    


The GEC in the meantime has doubled its phone lines from four to eight should any voter have a problem during the primary election. You can call the 477-9791 for more information. The GEC will meet tonight at 9pm at election central at the University of Guam Field House.


During last night's test run of their brand new tabulation machines it seems all went well. Pangelinan said, "It seemed to go pretty smoothly we had quite a bit of public participation and both political parties were well represented and they were able to take a look at how the machines ran and the results that were printed out from the machines themselves and the computerized results management. Based on the hand tabulation based on the test kit that was put together the hand tabulations marked exactly what the machine were reporting."


In terms of how the machines operated, Pangelinan stated, "I heard comments that they're a lot more quiet and it seems that it was reading the ballots quicker because of the straight path of the ballots the old machines had a curvature on its path and this one is straight through and the machines reads both back and front at the same time."


If you haven't voted yet, the polls close tonight at eight o'clock.