United States Congress members drafted a letter asking the Department of Justice to intervene and send federal poll monitors to oversee the upcoming territorial election in Puerto Rico.
This comes after the New Progressive Party allegedly attempted to register large numbers of elderly voters to vote for PNP candidates.
Nydia Velázquez, Puerto Rican Congresswoman stated in the letter that, after the new electoral code was put in effect, “a considerable number of civil servants with invaluable experience at the CEE [Comisión Estatal de Elecciones, Puerto Rico’s Election Commission] has been replaced by PNP political hacks.”
The Puerto Rico Electoral Code of 2020 loosened the rules for absentee voting, allowing people over 80 years old to vote by mail.
Various media outlets reported on the mass delivery of early voting applications at long-term care facilities for the elderly, even though Article 9.38 of the Electoral Code prohibits the mass delivery of applications.
“All early voting requests must be submitted individually, one per voter. Grouped requests will not be accepted,” the document reads.
One of the complaints filed in the CEE is against Jorge Navarro, a PNP representative, for violating the electoral code by collecting and submitting mass amounts of absentee voting requests for elderly citizens.
The representative was personally going to homes in his district and handing out small cards for the residents to fill out with their information for early voter registration.
The document distributed to residents asked for personal information such as birth date, last four digits of their SSN number, parents name and birthplace, mailing address and driver’s license number.
Navarro attempted to submit these forms at the Juntas de Inscripción Permanente (JIP), or Permanent Registration Boards, where citizens register to vote, but was denied entry, according to a post on Navarro’s social media.
“We are filing the complaint. I must say, with much regret, that at this moment, basically all the claims made in Puerto Rican courts challenging provisions of the code have been resolved in favor of the PNP,” said Manuel Natal Albelo, the opposition mayoral candidate for San Juan.
The mayoral candidate also said that he does not oppose the Congress members’ request for the Department of Justice to send federal monitors, but “would prefer that the Department of Justice in Puerto Rico investigate and prosecute cases of corruption in Puerto Rico.”
“Any additional oversight that can be achieved to ensure transparency, fairness, and cleanliness to the election process, I am in favor of it. What the electoral reform did was give the PNP a certain advantage because the PNP were the ones who knew what amendments were going to be made to the law,” said José J. Colón Morera, political science professor at the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus.
On Oct. 16, the U.S. Attorney, District of Puerto Rico Stephen Muldrow appointed Assistant United States Attorney Sethe Erbe as the District Election Officer (DEO).
“In that capacity [AUSA Erbe] is responsible for overseeing the district’s handling of election day complaints of voting rights concerns, threats of violence to election officials or staff, and election fraud, in consultation with Justice Department Headquarters in Washington,” according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico.
Congresswoman Velázquez responded, in a press release, stating that while the appointment of the DEO is “welcome news”, it does not address the “island’s deep structural electoral issues.”
Since the DOJ appointed federal monitors to Portage County, Ohio, the Congresswoman said that “there is no reason the same cannot be done in Puerto Rico. The DOJ has the authority, and there is more than enough evidence to intervene.”
“There are less than twenty days until the election. Puerto Rico needs fair and transparent elections, and I am determined to ensure that all available federal oversight mechanisms are in place. The DOJ must act now,” stated the press release.
The elections will take place on Nov. 5 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
