Puerto Rican election results in limbo, U.S. appeals court to hear case
/A month after Puerto Ricans voted in a hotly contested gubernatorial
race, results remain locked in a dispute that has escalated to three
courtroom battles and may lead to an overhaul of the island's electoral
process. At issue are up to 28,000 ballots disputed because of an
unusual system that allows Puerto Ricans to vote for a straight party
ticket, candidate-by-candidate or a combination of the two. "After this
is over, the parties, organizations, legislators, everyone, will have
to sit down and determine what needs to be improved,'' said Hector
Martinez Ramirez, a political science professor at the University of
Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. ``What is at play here is confidence in the
electoral process.'' The island's Supreme Court has ruled the disputed
ballots are valid and should be included in a recount. That ruling was
overturned by a U.S. federal judge, who ordered election officials to
count the ballots but not credit them to any of the candidates until a
decision is made on their validity. On Monday, the 1st U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in Boston is scheduled to hear arguments on which of
the two courts has rightful jurisdiction over the matter. Preliminary
results initially gave a slight lead to former governor Pedro Rossello,
of the New Progressive Party, which favors turning Puerto Rico into the
51st U.S. state. But the island's Elections Commission later certified
that Anibal Acevedo Vila, of the ruling Popular Democratic Party,
narrowly defeated Rossello. Acevedo, the island's nonvoting delegate to
the U.S. Congress, supports the island's current commonwealth status. [more] and [more]
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