NONE of the three legislative initiatives and the Open Government Act of 2007 popular initiative received the required number of votes on Nov. 7, according to Assistant Attorney General Meaghan Hassel-Shearer.
The CNMI Constitution states that “an amendment proposed by legislative initiative shall become effective if approved by a majority of the votes cast.”
But Hassel-Shearer contends that “everyone who submitted the ballot on the day of the election is a cast even if [their vote was not] counted.”
The Constitution also states that an “initiative petition that proposes a general law for the Commonwealth shall become law if approved by two-thirds of the votes cast by persons qualified to vote in the Commonwealth.”
Hassel-Shearer said the Open Government popular initiative needed two-thirds of the 13,784 cast and not just two-thirds of the total votes counted.
Hence, she added, the initiative, which garnered 7,330 votes, should have received 9,097 to be ratified.
The proposal would have applied the Open Government Act to the Legislature.
Also on the Nov. 7 ballot were House Legislative Initiative 15-3, Senate Legislative Initiative 16-11, and House Legislative Initiative 16-11.
S.L.I. 16-11 will amend the Constitution so that the next regular general elections will be held in even-numbered years to coincide with the U.S. congressional polls.
If ratified, the next midterm elections will be held in 2012, instead of 2011, and the next general elections will be held in 2014 and not 2013.
According to the Commonwealth Election Commission, 6,160 or 44.68 percent of the votes cast favored S.L.I. 16-11 while 4,634 or 33.61 percent voted against it.
2,981 or 21.62 percent were considered undervotes and nine or 0.6 percent were overvotes.
H.L.I. 16-11 will prohibit the withdrawal of any funds from the general funds if there is no balanced budget enacted into law.
This initiative got 6,309 or 45.77 percent “yes” votes and 4,444 or 32.24 percent “no” votes. The remainder were classified as either overvotes or undervotes.
H.L.I. 15-3 seeks to impose a two-term limit on the elected Board of Education members, who serve a term of four years. It also requires that the non-voting public school student representative must be a high school student, and the public school teacher representative must be a teacher.
The proposal got 6,408 “yes” votes, or 45.77 percent, while 4,404, or 32.24 percent, were against it. There were 3,020 undervotes and 11 overvotes.
These numbers are different from the figures posted on the commission’s Web site, http://www.votecnmi.gov.mp/electionresults.php.
Comments
Forcing the government to produce a budget or be penalized? Subject Legislature to the Open Government Act? Term limits?
Ha! Why would they want any of that?
The constitution says 2/3rds of the VOTES CAST. That means vote cast on the OGA initiative. If the founders wanted to count absent votes (no vote made but the ballot turned in) they would have just said 2/3 of the REGISTERED VOTERS.
The OGA could be put on a special election ballot and be the only thing a voter decides on. In that case 2/3rds of the Votes cast (YES or NO marked properly) would decide the outcome.
What is this AG doing? this isn\'t difficult to see and the intent of the framers of the CNMI constituion is being stepped on.
to start stealing poblic fuds or federal funds just follow what the people vote on and zip it.