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The comprehensive review of the upcoming November election, which commenced on Tuesday, involves the tallying of numerous mail-in ballots as well as the recount of eight contests that are critical along with the legislative ballot.
Jessika Padilla Rivera, Alternate Chairwoman of the State Elections Commission (SEC), indicated that the substantial number of mail-in ballots could potentially alter the outcomes of certain electoral contests.
“There are some with fewer and others with more, which can evidently shift the final counts, yet this doesn’t change the victors or the major contests,” she stated.
Currently, she noted that the outcomes in the races for House precincts 2, 3, 1, 20, and 22, the Mayagüez Senate district, along with the at-large legislative positions could be affected following the review. This is primarily due to the fact that write-in ballots necessitate manual counting rather than machine tallying.
Depending on these outcomes, legislators will determine if the so-called Minority Law will come into effect. This law stipulates that if a party secures a two-thirds majority in one or both legislative houses, an additional lawmaker from a minority party may need to be incorporated.
Clarifying the review procedure, Padilla Rivera explained that if the review minutes align with the incident minutes, the ballot box in question is deemed balanced. Conversely, if the minutes differ, the container holding the ballots must be reopened and counted anew.
“Should a recount be necessary, as is the case with the legislative ballot, the ‘briefcase’ is opened and the legislative ballot is recounted,” the SEC official elaborated.
Throughout the review process, representation from all political parties is required.
Padilla Rivera emphasized that the recount is conducted using counting machines, and only those that the machine does not read will be counted manually, which naturally includes write-in votes.
