A $415,000 funding to help conduct the 2024 primary election has been secured, four days before the start of early voting. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero on Thursday signed into law Sen.
Joe San Agustin's bill to appropriate the amount from fiscal 2024 general fund revenues collected in excess of what's adopted in the budget law, to help cover primary election expenses. These costs include payment for precinct officials' stipends, security and transportation of ballots, equipment rental and the lease of the early voting center at The Westin Resort Guam for $25,000. The primary election funding bill is the first and so far only measure among nearly 20 that senators sent to the governor on Wednesday for her action, because of the need to pay for the venue of the early voting.
Early voting starts at 10 a.m. on July 15.
The governor, however, said in her message to the Legislature that "alternative funding could have been available for this purpose, and the Legislature did raise questions about the timing of the funding request." "Speaker (Therese) Terlaje stated, 'I'm asking all these questions because it's awkward to me that we are days ahead of the primary, and we are dealing with a bill to fund a primary'. I share this same concern, and in the future, the funding for all of Guam's elections can be provided in a more timely fashion," the governor wrote.
"Nonetheless, I will not leave an election unfunded." With that, the governor signed San Agustin's bill into Public Law 37-99. The bi.
