CHAOS AT THE BALLOT BOX AS RUSHED TERRITORIAL STATEHOOD REFERENDUM ENDS IN DISASTER
Elections in the Northern Mariana Islands, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam ended in varying levels of chaos after Congress passed statute mandating statehood referenda to be held within hours of its signing. As a result of the extremely short interval, none of the territories were prepared to hold elections. “We were taken off guard when the bill was signed”, said one Guam elections official. “We expected the date to be changed through Amendment it redraft. Once it was, we were scrambling all night to get ballots printed and distributed, and get polling places set up”.
In the end, only six polling places were set up across Guam - four of which were in the vicinity of the capital, Hagåtña and one of which was located in an election official’s garage - were set up in time -. As voter registration lists were not set up in time, anyone who walked into a polling place was allowed to vote. Total turnout in Guam was under 1%, with the anti-statehood side winning comfortably on the final count - though due to the nature of the election and the abysmal turnout, the validity of this result has already been called into question.
By contrast, in the US Virgin Islands, elections officials chose to extend the voting period to be a full week long and have been working to promote awareness of the election. Polls will be open for another four days, and an election official stated that turnout was well above Guam’s, but still quite a bit lower than desired. Sources also claim that both sides intend to file suit if they lose, as the weeklong extension appears to violate the exact text of the statute.
American Samoa, meanwhile, had an extra day to get prepared, and has run the closest thing to an actual election, with over forty polling places set up. Current results have statehood narrowly ahead, but it is unclear if all votes have been counted, as elections officials appear to be struggling with discrepancies between ballots sent out and ballots returned.
In the Northern Mariana Islands, a similar chaotic election was held, but no results have been released. On Friday, NMI elections officials released a statement calling on Congress to nullify the referendum and set another with a more reasonable date.
Guam - 100% ReportingYes - 377 (40.3%)
No - 559 (59.7%)American Samoa - 
ReportingYes - 1,389 (52.3%)
No - 1,265 (47.7%)
Northern Mariana Islands - 0% ReportingYes - 0
No - 0
Polls in US Virgin Islands still open
