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Dignity Project denounces changes in early voting rules

Writer's picture: The San Juan Daily StarThe San Juan Daily Star


Javier Jiménez Pérez, the Dignity Project president and candidate for governor

By The Star Staff


Dignity Project (Proyecto Dignidad) Electoral Commissioner Juan Manuel Frontera Suau charged on Monday that the recent resolution issued by State Election Commission (SEC) Alternate Chairwoman Jessika Padilla Rivera could open the doors to electoral fraud by allowing early voting ballots by mail to be sent to addresses not registered in the General Voter Registry.


“With the decision taken on September 1, the SEC [chairwoman] intends to authorize the officials of the Permanent Registration Boards (JIPs by the initials in Spanish) to record postal addresses that do not conform to the General Voter Registry, which allows ballots to be sent to unregistered addresses,” Frontera Suau said in a written statement. “This decision has the effect of diluting the value of the vote.”


Resolution CEE-RS-24-023 revokes a previous determination by former SEC Chairman Francisco Rosado Colomer, who had established that early voting ballots by mail should be sent only to the postal address registered in the Voter Registry. The change in the rules occurred 66 days before the elections and 15 days before the deadline to request early voting.


Javier Jiménez Pérez, the Dignity Project president and candidate for governor, said “this decision opens the door to electoral fraud, since it allows dozens or hundreds of ballots to be received at a single postal address, which facilitates the manipulation of the electoral process.”


Jiménez Pérez also warned that with tens of thousands of deceased people still not removed from the General Voter Registry there is a real danger that votes will be cast in those individuals’ names, which would undermine the integrity of the elections.


“The people must understand that no SEC official sees the voter who requests a postal vote, at any time,” Jiménez Pérez.


Frontera Suau added that therefore, that vote “must have the guarantees of accurate identification by the SEC, that the person who says he requests and casts the vote is the person with the right to do so.”


Jiménez Pérez said the Dignity Project will proceed to take the matter to court to protect the right to vote of all voters in Puerto Rico, ensuring that ballots are sent to the correct addresses and maintaining the transparency and legitimacy of the elections.

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