A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that Puerto Rico's Supreme Court, rather than a federal judge on the island, has jurisdiction over disputed ballots in the election for governor.
ADVERTISEMENT
The court found that with a few narrow exceptions, federal courts are not authorized to intervene in local elections.
The ruling kicks the protracted gubernatorial election back to the island's Supreme Court to review thousands of disputed ballots favoring procommonwealth candidate Anibal Acevedo Vila of the Popular Democratic Party.
Preliminary election results from Nov. 2 showed Acevedo Vila narrowly ahead of the pro-statehood contender, former governor Pedro Rossello of the New Progressive Party -- 48.38 percent to 48.18 percent.
On the ballots in dispute, voters put marks next to the names of Acevedo Vila and Roberto Prats, the Popular Democratic Party's candidate for nonvoting delegate to the US Congress, but they also marked an 'x' for the Independence Party.
Acevedo Vila's supporters say Puerto Rico's laws allow voters to mark one party in addition to candidates from other mainstream parties.
But Rossello's lawyer, former US Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who represented George W. Bush in the disputed 2000 presidential election, argued that it is impossible to determine the voter's intent on those ballots.
Last month, Puerto Rico's Supreme Court and US District Judge Daniel Dominguez both ordered an immediate recount, but made contradictory rulings on how to deal with the ballots favoring Acevedo Vila.
The Supreme Court ordered them counted as valid, while Dominguez ordered election officials to count the ballots, but not to add them to the final recount tally until he rules on their validity.
The dispute landed in the First US Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this week, and dozens of protesters showed up on the courthouse steps. A three-judge panel of the court issued a 41-page ruling concluding that "it was an abuse of discretion for the District Court to exercise jurisdiction over this local election dispute."

No comments:
Post a Comment