By The Star Staff
Electoral commissioners from a pair of political parties on Tuesday criticized the announcement by State Elections Commission (SEC) Alternate Chairwoman Jessika Padilla Rivera that early voting ballots will be counted by hand and not by machines.
The electoral commissioners announced they were going to appeal her decision to the island Supreme Court.
The decision was made because the counting machines could not read the X’s used to mark the ballots. On Monday, the SEC urged voters to darken the space corresponding to the candidates of their choice instead of marking it with an X.
According to the electoral commissioners, the decision, which was based on Padilla Rivera’s interpretation of a ruling by Judge Raúl Candelario López in a case brought by the New Progressive Party (NPP) on Sunday, change the electoral rules at the last minute.
“Today, when we are finishing a series of matters in the commission, the chairperson informs us that the interpretation that she gives to this part of the decision is that work will continue with the JAVAA votes beyond today at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, even though we said all of that goes to the scrutiny,” said PDP Alternate Electoral Commissioner Gerardo Antonio “Toñito” Cruz Maldonado at a press conference. “In response to some proposals made by colleagues who have been working for hours, including 12-hour shifts, the chairperson agreed that it would be tomorrow. But it is against the regulations that we all agreed to.”
“This is dangerous,” he added.
MVC Electoral Commissioner Lillian Aponte Dones added that “[w]ith this decision, the alternate chairperson worsens the already diminished credibility of the electoral process and feeds the NPP’s desire to fail to comply with the legal and regulatory norms that govern this election.”
“The alternate chairwoman has no authority to annul the applicable provisions of the regulations. Nor is it true that the court had decided on this matter,” Aponte Dones said. “The sentence on which the NPP based its request only dealt with the institutional balance in the counting process. Nothing was provided regarding the applicable regulations.”
Judge Candelario López determined that the process of counting the early vote must continue uninterruptedly, even if a political party does not have representatives present at the balance boards.
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