Thousands of Puerto Ricans received a second chance to vote for the first time on Sunday, August 16, a week after the primary elections were ruined because ballots were slow or insufficient to arrive at the voting centers, which it represented a blow to democracy in this American territory.
More than 60 of the 110 electoral districts of the island opened after the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that a second round of voting could be carried out in the centers that never opened on August 9 or did not remain open for eight hours. regulatory.
The opening of at least one polling station in the coastal town of Loíza, in the north of the island, was delayed for more than an hour as dozens of voters complained about having to wait in the sun wearing masks.
“We hoped that there would not be any kind of problem,” said Santiago Jiménez, a 68-year-old retiree, adding that some people left. “We are all frustrated.”
Jannette Ledoux, coordinator of the unit in which that polling station was located, told The Associated Press that the problem was the result of the resignation of four volunteers on Saturday night, which delayed the mandatory ballot count prior to open the doors. She said the center would stay open late to meet the required eight hours.
Once the elections started, an elderly woman came out after casting her vote and shouted to those who were waiting, “Come on! Let’s go! Lets vote! Lets vote!”.
But not everyone was able to participate in the second round on Sunday.
The Supreme Court ruling left out voters like Eldy Correa, a 67-year-old retiree who went to her polling station in Cabo Rojo, a southwestern town, three times last Sunday and backed out only to find out after it opened late. .
“They took away that right to vote,” she said, adding that she was upset with the president of the electoral commission regardless of his apologies. “Sorry for what? That doesn’t solve anything ”.
In the primaries, Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, from the New Progressive Party, and former Congressman Pedro Pierlusi Urrutia face. He was also governor briefly after Ricardo Rosselló Nevares resigned last year amid huge protests fueled by leaked conversations that were saturated with expletives. However, the island’s Supreme Court ruled that Vázquez Garced, then Secretary of Justice, was the next in line to become governor as there was no secretary of state.
Meanwhile, three candidates are running for the main opposition Popular Democratic Party, which sent a letter to the US Secretary of Justice, William Barr, asking him to have his department investigate what happened in the voting last Sunday. Senator Eduardo Bhatía faces the mayor of Isabela, Carlos Delgado, and the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz, known for her public debates with President Donald Trump.
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