By The Star Staff
After State Elections Commission (SEC) Alternate Chairwoman Jessika Padilla Rivera decided late last week to require certified mail to cast early votes, Edwin Mundo, the former New Progressive Party (NPP) alternate electoral commissioner, recommended that the party refrain from challenging the decision in court.
“They now have 10 days from Friday to go to court. My recommendation is that they do not go to court so as not to delay the process further,” Mundo said in a radio interview earlier this week. “Three weeks have already been lost due to the debate over whether it should be regular mail or certified. Now, they must use this time to begin to direct the process in the commission and in the balance meetings that must prepare for this.”
Regarding the concern on the part of the five parties’ electoral commissioners about the age range for casting early votes and the capacity of the SEC to manage the votes, Mundo pointed out that the principals have already had time to prepare.
“They’ve had a year to prepare for that. Everyone knows that the elections are on November 5. Everyone knows they have to make some arrangements,” he said. “The five parties are represented in the Administrative Board of Early Voting, which is called the JAVA, so the five parties, with the chairwoman, have had all this time to prepare, knowing that they had to do it, regardless of whether the age was 60 or 80 [years].”
Likewise, Mundo recalled that the SEC decided in 2020 to include people over 60 and older in early voting .
“The age was maintained because four years ago, in the last elections, it had been decided that it was 60 years old and, in addition, the parties that had primaries in these elections used that date, and the federal court determined that it will be the date for early voting,” he said. “[…] [The qualifying age was] 80 [years old] for those who request to vote at home and who have to go get the [ballot in order to] vote at home. But it was agreed that even those over 60 [years of age] can seek a vote from their homes or send it by mail. That has been [the case] since 2020.”
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