New York – The disclosure of the final results of the primaries in Puerto Rico as part of the scrutiny process will take longer than expected, after the company Dominion Voting Systems acknowledged a series of inconsistencies to the State Election Commission (CEE). during the transmission of the votes.
“It was projected that the scrutiny could end in mid-June. Obviously, we are facing a totally unpredictable situation, so we have to evaluate each of these two situations. Whatever the scrutiny takes, we are going to guarantee that the result is correct and real,” revealed the alternate president of the EEC, Jessika Padilla Rivera, at a press conference this Friday.
The electoral commissioner of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), Karla Angleró, was the one who initially warned about information that did not coincide.
“The electoral commissioner of the PPD notified a first inconsistency in relation to the value of a result that was issued by the minutes of the counting machine on the day of the event versus what was published in Reidy…The information we have is that the values disclosed in our disclosure system They are zero values. Having had this situation, it is escalated directly to Dominion, which is (the entity) that can specifically prove what the result is and what is happening with this inconsistency,” revealed the CEE spokesperson.
Discrepancies in 121 minutes of the PNP and the PPD
Padilla Rivera added that his office identified at least 121 minutes of the primaries of the New Progressive Party (PNP) and PPD with discrepancies.
“The New Progressive Party was also finding inconsistencies in the results report issued by the counting machine versus the results disclosed in the Reidy system; these cases were also escalated to the Dominion company. Officially, 121 cases could be identified where the value reported in Reidy was zero when there was a nominal value in the counting machine report. Of these 121 cases, 91 responded to the PNP, and 30 responded to the Popular Democratic Party,” the official added.
The alternate president of the CEE specified that Dominion certified the reading of the results as correct, but not the transmission.
Padilla Rivera added that on Thursday he participated in a first meeting with the representative of the Dominion company and the electoral commissioner of the PNP, Vanessa Santo Domingo. Later, he would do the same with the PPD electoral commissioner.
Dominion representative acknowledged problems in the transmission of votes
The Dominion spokesperson reportedly acknowledged that there was a situation with the export file that brings the results to Reidy.
“We have asked Reidy and Dominion, being those responsible for this situation, to give us a detailed, in-depth report on what happened in this disclosure, export of results from the Reidy system. We are guaranteed by the Dominion company that the receipt issued by the counting machine on the day of the event, that is, that record, which reflects the results, is reliable; Not so, the file that transmits that information to our Reidy dissemination system,” said the alternate president of the EEC.
Audit will be carried out in five polling stations
For its part, Santo Domingo specified that an audit will be carried out in five polling stations: Arroyo 80, Aguas Buenas 81, San Juan 3, Toa Baja 14 and Las Marías 34.
“We are doing an audit of these five schools to make a decision on what the next step will be. It is a sample, because we want to do this responsibly. We cannot enter into a crisis or chaos and react immediately, (we are going to) evaluate this sample and then, in the Primary Commission, make a decision so that every candidate feels calm that we are counting their votes,” Santo indicated. Sunday.
The PNP representative to the EEC said that the scrutiny of the early vote is also being reviewed.
“We are working early to carry out the audit and we will probably have a better scenario once it is completed,” he assured.
The scrutiny process began this week. This process begins right after the EEC receives all ballots and voting materials.
In the general count, the count records of each polling station are evaluated and any accounting errors are corrected.
In summary, it is examined whether the information that was issued from the counting machines is the same as the results through the results dissemination system.
“The preliminary certification is done in accordance with the electoral code, with a preliminary notice at ten at night and another at six in the morning. These announcements are partial, based on the results released on the day of the event. The export of those results is where the problem identified by Dominion lies,” explained Padilla Rivera.
On Monday, it was reported that the counting work is carried out in the CEE Electoral Operations office, in San Juan.
That same day, the CEE confirmed that the PNP and PPD gubernatorial candidates for the November 5 elections will be Jenniffer González and Jesús Manuel Ortiz, respectively.
The office published on its website the total votes of the 3,013 polling stations in which PNP voters participated and those of the 2,211 qualified for the PPD.
González obtained 159,527 votes, equivalent to 54.57%, while Pedro Pierluisi took 132,805, equivalent to 45.43%. The difference between the two is about 26,722.
Eduardo Nieves, director of the Office of Information Systems and Electronic Processing of the CEE, explained that, of the 91 minutes in dispute in the PNP, 17 correspond to the ballot for the candidacy for governor.
However, Santo Domingo stated that the number of ballots for governor for the PNP that would be unannounced amounts to around 5,000, a figure less than the difference in votes between González and Pierluisi, which means that the review would not result in significant changes in the results of that contest.
Given this situation, the resident commissioner in Washington said that she will wait to be officially certified as a winner to begin the restructuring of the PNP.
“I am not going to cast shadows on a process that is a general scrutiny, which must take place these days. I urge them (the EEC) to take two turns, as they did in Sunday’s elections. Why do we have to have this in dribs and drabs? I am sure that my people, like the other volunteers, will be there to finish,” González declared yesterday as quoted by El Nuevo Día.
Meanwhile, he said he hopes to meet with the CEE management to discuss the matter and prevent the failures of the primaries from being repeated in the general elections.
Reports of technical problems related to the primarist process began from the day of the event, specifically with the counting machines. Subsequently, the EEC was questioned about problems in counting early votes.
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