Guam News - Guam News

Guam - Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks is concerned the Guam Election Commission (GEC) will be unnecessarily spending $50 thousand to print close to $50 thousand separate ballots for the uncontested Public Auditor race in the Primary Election.

Brooks says Guam law is inconsistent when it comes to uncontested races. She suggests that if any race is uncontested that it go directly to the General Election.

Both Brooks and GEC Executive Director Maria Pangelinan are waiting to hear from Speaker Judi Won Pat to see if changes can be made.

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“While this is certainly not a significant amount of money, it's a cost that can be avoided by our government” said Brooks. “It's a needless cost that would be incurred so lets avoid cost avoidance. And that's really what I'm looking for. Let's not add further to the deficit with this uncontested primary.”

In the meantime, Pangelinan is preparing to print the Primary Election ballots and the extra ones for the Public Auditor race because GEC is ministerial in nature. However, she does mention the silence on the Public Auditor election must be addressed at some point.

“The law is very specific about the legislature, the Governor and the mayors and absent about the Public Auditor” said Pangelinan. “The Public Auditor qualifications and election is almost separate from the election code and hence the difference in the requirements.”

Pangelinan already spoke to the Speaker and remarks that it's now up to lawmakers to decide what to do. The extra ballots will cost GEC an extra $50 thousand dollars. Although August 1 was the deadline given, she adds changes might have to occur sooner because they will start sending absentee ballots next week.