The Challenges to Protect Puerto Rico's Vote on Election Day

From early counting and absentee ballots to the general scrutiny after Election Day, the integrity of the voting process relies on thousands of people being trained to serve as polling station officials for the general elections on November 5. The recruitment of these officials falls to political parties, except for independent candidates.

In addition to polling station officials, at least 25 independent observers from civil society organizations and around 129 observers from the Civil Rights Commission are already set to monitor the electoral process. This number will be supplemented by 31 observers from electoral and human rights organizations from Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Panama. Documents provided to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) show that the State Elections Commission (CEE) has allocated $75,000 in the budget to cover travel and accommodation expenses for the international group. The ACLU sued the CEE to obtain this information.

However, as of this publication, with 10 days left until the elections, some observers have expressed doubts about the applicability and functionality of the Authorized Independent Observers Protocol approved by the CEE. The Civil Rights Commission (CDC), a government entity that has observed the electoral process for over four decades, filed a lawsuit last Friday against the CEE and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The CDC sought court intervention to expedite the participation of its observers in both correctional institutions and the general elections.

Jessika Padilla Rivera, the alternate president of the CEE, was unavailable for an interview for this story.

Uneven Effort in Recruiting Volunteers

With a week before the elections, only the New Progressive Party (PNP) seems to have recruited the officials needed to have three representatives at each polling station, the maximum allowed by the 2020 Electoral Code. Traditionally, recruiting these volunteers is more challenging for minority parties and easier for those in power.

According to Gerardo “Toñito” Cruz Maldonado, the alternate electoral commissioner of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), the number of officials per polling station is also influenced by the party running the municipality where the electoral unit is located. The PNP finds it easier to secure vote monitors in municipalities with PNP mayors, and the same goes for the PPD in towns with mayors from the same party.

For minority parties — the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC), and Project Dignity (PD) — in a system based on distrust, where votes must be "watched," it is crucial to have the necessary representation in the island’s 1,291 electoral units. Although they could not specify the exact number of polling station officials they had recruited after weeks of training, the Electoral Commissioners of these three parties assured them they could handle the different voting modalities.

"I want to see the whole process be fair, even if we lose and don't have the victory," said José Omar Barrios Rios, a self-employed worker, during a PIP electoral officials training session.

Meanwhile, Xavier Rivera Obrador, a graphic designer who participated in an MVC training event, explained that he would serve as an official to "keep an eye on things."

"If we don't unite to defend [the votes], we won't have a fair democracy," said Iris López Díaz, a homemaker who signed up to be a polling station official for PD.

Polling station officials must monitor when voters register, ink their fingers, receive ballots, scan them after marking their votes, and deposit them in the ballot box. They must also oversee the electronic scrutiny, record-keeping, and handling of surplus ballots and other materials used in the process.

Electoral units are further divided into voting stations, totaling 5,748 this year. With 4,490 regular stations and 1,258 added manually, it is a daunting task for the three minority parties, requiring them to recruit at least 5,748 officials to have one representative per station and a maximum of 17,244 to have three in each. These figures do not include coordinators and sub-coordinators appointed for each electoral unit or the volunteers managing voting before the day of the elections, whether at home, in hospitals, or prisons. It is common for officials to have multiple roles in the electoral process.

Juan Manuel Frontera Suau, the electoral commissioner of PD, estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 people are needed across the five parties to work "in some facet of volunteering two months before the elections." Héctor Luis Acevedo Pérez, former mayor of San Juan and professor of electoral affairs, agreed with this estimate.

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“Queremos asegurar no solo el 5 [de noviembre], sino todas las rutas de voto a domicilio, cárceles y hospitales, que son días previos; tener representación a todos los niveles”, dijo Roberto Iván Aponte Berríos, comisionado electoral del PIP. Explicó que no comparte el número de funcionarios reclutados por razones de “estrategia” de cara a las elecciones. En el 2012, Aponte Berríos estimó que el PIP reclutó entre 10,000 a 12,000 funcionarios.

"We want to ensure not only November 5 but all alternatives of home voting, prisons, and hospitals, which occur in the days prior, to have representation at all levels," said Roberto Iván Aponte Berríos, the PIP's electoral commissioner. He explained that he does not share the number of officials recruited for "strategic" reasons ahead of the elections. In 2012, Aponte Berríos estimated that the PIP recruited between 10,000 and 12,000 officials.

The PIP's Precinct 1 Local Commissioner, Roberto Negrón Bauzá, confirmed they had recruited 178 electoral officials for Election Day, giving them 1.4 officials per station.

Lillian Aponte Dones, the electoral commissioner of the MVC, said she has seen "great interest from people in monitoring those votes," they have a list of 8,000 people interested in serving as electoral officials or helping in some part of the process. However, she noted that this number varies as they constantly recruit and train officials.

The MVC's Precinct 1 local commissioner, Sofia Vidal Liceaga, confirmed they had recruited about 180 officials. She also mentioned denying a person for the home voting route because they already had the maximum number of officials a party can have.

The MVC electoral commissioner also mentioned receiving several calls from people wanting to be officials but not wanting to be identified with any political party. She described it as a "flaw in the electoral system" that these people cannot be electoral officials because the statute requires them to represent a party in the electoral competition.

Frontera Suau expressed confidence that his party — which received the fewest votes in the 2020 elections — will be able to "meet the basic requirements" to have representation at all polling stations. However, a precinct commissioner from PD, who requested anonymity, said recruiting officials has been “extremely challenging.”

Currently, she has 12 officials, which is not enough to cover the 130 polling stations under her charge, and she plans to place most as coordinators to rotate among the 25 electoral units.

The PIP and MVC published their training schedules on social media and websites. In contrast, PD has not released a training schedule.

Cruz, the alternate commissioner of the PPD, assured that 80% of the officials were trained for Election Day and that they aim to have two officials per regular station and one per manually added station, totaling 10,238 officials. They are still working on recruiting and training officials.

The PNP already has 18,000 officials recruited and trained, said Aníbal Vega Borges, the electoral commissioner of the PNP. He also mentioned having a structure to mobilize people to vote, consisting of about 5,000 people, bringing their team to 23,000.

Unlike the major parties — which had primaries and recruited officials and temporary employees since January — the minority parties began recruiting polling station officials and temporary employees in August, Aponte Berríos explained. He also noted that majority parties find it easier to secure employees on "temporary assignment" to assist in electoral tasks due to their control of municipalities and central government agencies.

"Parties that control the agencies and municipalities have a significant advantage," said Frontera Suau.

Senator José Vargas Vidot, who is running again as an independent candidate, reported already recruiting coordinators and electoral observers. However, he did not want to specify how many he had recruited because "I don't want to be a target of adverse strategies from others."

Meanwhile, Representative Luis Raúl Torres Cruz, also running as an independent candidate for one of the House's at-large seats, said he wants to recruit a coordinator for each electoral precinct. He explained that he has recruited 70 so far. Both noted that, as independent candidates, it is more challenging to recruit than for political parties.

Potential Alliances to Safeguard Votes

Acevedo recalled an incident from the 2012 elections in which thousands of votes were not counted. "There was a candidate from a minority party [María de Lourdes Santiago of the PIP] for the Senate with 11,000 more votes in the general scrutiny. The reality is that she had 11,000 more votes because she didn't have polling station officials, and they weren't counted on Election Day. That problem has decreased significantly with the machines because the machine counts the vote. It doesn't depend on the officials, but on having someone there to ensure no one marks the ballots except the voter."

"The machines eliminate fraud when counting the votes, but if a minority party doesn't have polling station officials, it opens the door for irregularities. Machines make mistakes, but the level of errors is much lower; they are specific cases," added Acevedo, emphasizing that polling station officials are an "indispensable" part of the electoral process's integrity.

None of the commissioners from minority parties ruled out the possibility of forming an alliance of polling station officials from minority parties if they find themselves short of volunteers in any electoral unit on Election Day.

"The goal is the same: to ensure a transparent process, accessible without electoral manipulations, and I believe that unites the new parties," said Commissioner Aponte Dones. "Despite different ideologies, we want a transparent process," she added.

According to the Electoral Code, a minimum of one inspector and one secretary from each political party is needed for a voting station for the general elections. However, it is possible to open a voting station with fewer officials following a process established in the General Elections Regulations. Minority party commissioners are skeptical that the voting process will be fair and transparent if they do not have their officials monitoring the process.

"The electoral system is based on distrust. There are parties that watch the opponent, and the opponent watches you," explained Frontera Suau.

Traditionally, the essential work of polling station officials has been voluntary. The PPD Representative Juan José Santiago Nieves introduced legislation to assign a $100 stipend to polling station officials. Still, the measure remains pending in the House Committee for the Study and Evaluation of Puerto Rican Constitutional Law, chaired by the PPD Representative José "Conny" Varela Fernández.

Most electoral officials in the United States receive pay from the state government. Compensation varies in each state, with some using the state or federal minimum wage. In Alaska, officials can earn up to $20 an hour, while Colorado offers at least $5.

Independent Oversight

After the PNP and PPD primaries in June, the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations (UNIORE), a non-governmental entity composed of electoral bodies from the Caribbean, South America, and North America that have observed electoral processes since 1991, pointed out several irregularities witnessed during the event. The organization detailed these issues in a report presented to the CEE.

UNIORE observed units with no easily accessible polling stations, long lines to vote, and a lack of polling station officials, "especially from the PPD," necessary to manage a voting station, causing two stations to merge so all voters could vote. It highlighted that the right to a secret vote was violated because the booths "were positioned in such a way that it was perfectly visible how people voted."

"Four years ago, we made observations in that same direction, and the critical thing is that the CEE is fully aware of that situation but has not taken the necessary precautionary measures to ensure that the right to vote is truly a secret right," noted Annette Martínez Orabona, executive director of the ACLU in Puerto Rico, referring to failures detected in November 2020 that persisted in June 2024.

The PIP and PD commissioners said they have been assured that electoral units will have the necessary resources to guarantee vote confidentiality, such as screens for voting booths and folders to store ballots before entering them into electronic scrutiny machines. Similarly, the PIP commissioner mentioned that a design was worked on for polling stations where officials are positioned with their backs to the voting booths.

The ACLU has already anticipated several failures in the 2024 elections, such as long lines to register to vote and a lack of transparency during the electoral process.

Since early September, the ACLU, the Bar Association, and Amnesty International have asked the CEE to accredit them as independent electoral observers during the electoral process.

Contrary to UNIORE, invited by the CEE, the three local organizations will work independently of this international entity, said Martínez Orabona.

The "Authorized Independent Observers Protocol" was approved on October 17. However, different organizations have already identified several issues with the protocol, including the fact that they are not allowed to vote at the polling station they are observing and that they are allowed to take photos but are denied the use of smartphones or electronic devices.

Bar Association President, Vivian Godineaux Villaronga, said they would request amendments to the protocol.

"It's a very vague regulation... Some things are not clear," Godineaux Villaronga pointed out. She explained that the regulations contain limitations that "slightly violate the process" and "do not allow for proper observation." One of the major concerns highlighted during an electoral observers training is that, according to the new protocol, they will not be able to use their phones to take notes and recordings as they have done in previous years.

Commissioner Aponte Dones opined that: "Here [at the CEE] they oppose that kind of transparency, so we have no doubt that they don't want these observers inside the CEE... and it shows when discussing the protocols: they want to limit what observers can do."

The president of the Bar Association explained that the CEE's delay in responding to the request delayed the recruitment of lawyers to work as electoral observers in judicial regions.

Between the ACLU, the Bar Association, and Amnesty International, they have managed to recruit about 30 electoral observers. Godineaux Villaronga and Martínez Orabona confirmed they will have observers in Las Piedras, Cabo Rojo, Loíza, Caguas, Humacao, Arecibo, San Juan, and Carolina.

The spokespersons agreed they hope to have more observers by November 5 to conduct a "sampling" of electoral units and identify possible voting rights violations. After reviewing their findings, they will prepare a preliminary report for November 6 and a more in-depth one.

Although a Regulation for accreditation and observers for the 2024 elections already exists, it only applies to the representation of candidates for the Legislature and parties at the legislative or municipal level. As the document explains, "any request from any organization, association, or 'bona fide' group to participate as Observers in the General Elections and the General Scrutiny will be addressed by the full Commission through a Resolution for that purpose, and not by the present regulation."

Along with their accreditation request, the three organizations also requested information on accreditation, invitation, and logistics for electoral observers. They also requested checklists to ensure compliance with electoral process norms and a CEE certification regarding deceased persons purged from the Electoral Register, among other documents.

Civil Rights Commission Faces Challenges as Observer

The Civil Rights Commission (CDC, in Spanish) notified the CEE on September 9 that they would have electoral observers. However, they did not receive communication from the agency until October 17, when they received the observers' protocol. But, according to the entity's Executive Director, Ever Padilla Ruiz, it does not apply to them because it is designed for private-sector observers. The Commission's case involves observers appointed by a government agency with investigative power.

Unlike other groups of electoral observers, the CDC can intervene when they find that established norms by the Electoral Code are not being followed. For example, in the 2020 elections, Padilla Ruiz temporarily halted elections at the Guerrero prison in Aguadilla because security cameras pointed at the area where inmates voted. The new independent observer's protocol explicitly prohibits interfering with voting processes.

"Our interpretation is that this protocol does not apply to the CDC. We are neither an organization, an association, nor a legitimate 'bona fide' group, as detailed in the applicability of this protocol. The CDC is a legally-empowered government agency in Puerto Rico to do the work. We have already notified the CEE of our interpretation of the protocol," said Padilla Ruiz in written statements.

For this electoral process, the CDC has 54 observers in prisons and 65 for the general elections, Padilla Ruiz said. Additionally, they will integrate four Commissioners and six CDC employees. He acknowledged that the number is not enough to cover all municipalities.

Padilla Ruiz said the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) informed them that they could not process the necessary identification to serve as observers inside prisons until they can endorse their request with the new protocol. As of this publication, Padilla Ruiz has not met with the CEE to validate whether the protocol will apply to them. He was awaiting the outcome of the mandamus that the CDC filed against the CEE and the DCR to validate the list of observers they will have in penal institutions. These votes will take place on November 3. The CDC also asked the Court to order the CEE to recognize the CDC's powers to evaluate government actions in the electoral process.

"This is the first time that effective coordination to participate as observers cannot be established," the document states.

Awaiting Action from the U.S. Department of Justice

Concerns about voting rights and the provisions of the 2020 Electoral Code were raised by Democratic Party Representatives Raúl Grijalva, Grace Meng, Delia Ramírez, and Puerto Ricans Nydia Velázquez and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. The congressional leaders sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S.Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to request federal electoral monitors to oversee the elections in Puerto Rico. They also requested a detailed examination of the $6.9 million granted to the CEE as part of the "Help America Vote Act."

The U.S. Department of Justice appointed Seth Erbe, deputy chief prosecutor of the Financial Fraud and Corruption Section, as the District Election Officer for Puerto Rico. Erbe will oversee complaints about voting rights, electoral fraud, and threats to electoral officials. This official had been appointed in the 2020 elections to carry out the same duties.

Congresswoman Velázquez said this appointment is insufficient, although it is a step in the right direction. "Electoral observers are needed to stop the disenfranchisement that threatens Puerto Rico's democracy. With less than 20 days until November 5, the Department of Justice must act now to protect Puerto Ricans' right to vote," she stated.

The EAC and the U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to communications requesting their reaction to the lawmaker’s request.