The Guam Election Commission office on the second floor of the Oka Building in Tamuning on October 20, 2021.
So far, Guam Greyhound Park is the only vendor to express interest in hosting early voting for the 2022 election year, and the Guam Election Commission is continuing its search for vendors.
“The Greyhound wrote us a letter saying they were interested in providing the space, no one else, but we’re going to be aggressive,” said Maria Pangelinan, director of the Guam Election Commission.
Since early voting is a permanent option, the commission will need to rent space for all future elections.
A call for tenders went out on Friday for commercial offices which, for security reasons, must be located within three miles of the commission’s office in the Oka building. While the Greyhound was a suitable location to host early voting, Pangelinan said other locations would receive the invitation to bid, which has an April 25 deadline.
While several hotels are within the three-mile range, the long walk to most ballrooms isn’t ideal for voters and presents a problem for ballot security, Pangelinan said. The Hyatt may be ideal, but it’s outside the commission’s price range.
“We don’t want the food, we don’t want the atmosphere. And we will pay for it if we go to the hotel,” she said.
As for funding for the new space, Sen. Joe San Agustin introduced Bill 281 on Wednesday, which will provide $609,000 to the Elections Commission to run the primary elections and lease the early voting space. Pangelinan said the commission needs the money in hand by April 25.
Meanwhile, the Elections Commission is short of the 50,000 registered voters who were expected to be registered by February, in part because the Department of Revenue and Taxation failed to send information on “car voters” to the Commission.
The Automotive Voters Act allows eligible voters to register each time they apply for or renew their Guam driver’s license or Guam ID card with Rev and Tax. It was adopted in 2015, but was only implemented in 2019.
Rev and Tax launched online renewal of identity cards and driving licenses last October.
“The first thing we discovered was that we may not be getting copies of online applications from DMV. Upon further checking, there were more that we weren’t getting,” said Pangelinan.
The applications were not lost, the commission simply did not have them, she said. They were working with Rev and Tax to resolve the issue by May.
The primary election takes place on August 27 and early voting begins on July 25. The deadline to register to vote for the primary is August 17. Those who register to vote can vote the same day.
Candidates
The number of potential candidates vying for the 15 seats in the Legislative Assembly is now 37, as of Sunday. The following people picked up packages of candidates for the senator, according to the Election Commission’s signature sheet.
Vincent Borja, Republican
Ken Leon Guerrero, Republican
Roy AB Quinata, Democrat
Don AA Edquilane, Republican
Sandra Reyes Seau, Republican
Jesse Lujan, Republican
Dwayne San Nicolas, Democrat
Roy L. Gamboa, Democrat
Diamantino Conceicao, undecided
Senator Joe San Agustin, incumbent, Democrat
Muchanah Udui, Democrat
Alejandro Gay, Democrat
Ian D. Cathling, undecided
Dave Duenas, Democrat
Fred E. Bordallo Jr., Democrat
Chris Barnett, undecided
Elaine Ulloa, undecided
Kevin A. Nace, undecided
Trevor Boykin, undecided
David Lubofsky, Undecided
Sarah Thomas-Nededog, Democrat
EnyDennis Dali, Independent
Evangelis J. Babauta
Tom Devlin, Undecided
Senator Telo Taitague, incumbent, Republican
Harvey Egna, Republican
Raffaele MJP Sgambelluri, Republican
James Terbio, Republican
Louise B. Muna, Republican
Amanda Blas, Republican
Jessica M. Barrett, Republican
Thomas Shieh, Undecided
Franklin Meno, Democrat
Cel Babauta, unlisted festival
Senator Jose “Pedo” Terlaje, incumbent, Democrat
David W. Crisostomo, Republican
Sen. Telena Nelson picked up a package of candidates for delegate and senator from Washington, but made no formal campaign announcements. Senator Jim Moylan officially announced his candidacy for the delegate seat. Of the. Mike San Nicolas has expressed interest in running for governor, but has not officially declared his candidacy for any office.
The incumbents’ campaign team, Governor Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Governor Joshua Tenorio, is registered to begin fundraising, along with Camacho Ada 2022, for the team of former Governor Felix Camacho and Senator Tony Adam.
Other candidate files were retrieved for:
Attorney General:
Leevin Camacho
Douglas Moylan
Consolidated Utilities Commission:
Kenneth Perez
Nonito Blas
Ricardo S. Unpingco
Guam Board of Education:
Ellaine Ulloa
Kevin A. Nace
Ron McNinch
Cell Babauta
Governor and Lieutenant Governor:
Chris Barnett left undecided.
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