Guam general election, 2004

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Guam

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The Guam general election of 2004 was held on 2 November. On the ballot were:

Contents

[edit] Background

In Guam, elections to the Legislature and multi-member boards are run via open primary (This following the outlawing of the previous blanket primary[1]) similar to Louisiana.

Both the Public Auditor[2] and Consolidated Commission on Utilities[3] are required to be nonpartizan and as such candidates are not allowed to state affiliations or list them on the ballot.

In the case of the Auditor, affiliating with a party is grounds for disqualification.[4]

[edit] Run up

The Guam Bar Association conducted an internal survey to determine feelings towards the two judges running for retention. Both were given strong marks of approval by the less then 100 members. [5]

During the run up, "Proposition A", the gaming/gabling legalization measure received significant coverage. A group called "Citizens for Economic Diversity" proponed it.

[edit] Results

[edit] Presidential

Despite not having any electoral votes, Guam approved of George W. Bush by 64% over John Kerry. Ralph Nader and Steve Badnarik both recieved less then one percent.

[edit] Delegate

Madeleine Bordallo, a Democrat, ran unopposed and kept her seat in the United States House of Representatives.

[edit] Initiatives

The only ballot initiative, 1, which was a proposal for legalized and controlled gambling[6], went down to defeat.

[edit] Legislature

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 2 November 2004 Guam Legislature election results
Parties Votes % Seats
Republican Party 228 177 51.8 9
Democratic Party 211 904 48.1 6
Total (Note Guam runs open primary style elections) 440 313 100% 15
Source: Guam Election Commission [7]

30 candidates ran for 15 seats in the unicameral house (Both the Democratic and Republican parties nominated a full slate). Nine Republicans and six Democrats were election. Ray Tenorio was the top vote-getter with 4.92% or 21,656 votes out of 400 313 cast.

[edit] Auditor

Doris Floris was elected Auditor without opposition.

[edit] Utilities Commission

Thomas Ada and Gloria Nelson were election to the two seats on the Consolidated Commission on Utilities.

[edit] Judicial retention

Both judges standing for retention kept their seats by large majorities.

[edit] Education board

Elections for the Guam Education Policy Board suffered for a shortage of candidates: Only in the district of Luchan were there more running then returned (4, including write in, for two seats). In the other two 2 seat districts, the second had to be filled by write in, and in the 3 seat Lagu district, NO candidates were on the ballot, resulting in a 100% write-in return.

[edit] Mayors

10 Republican mayors were elected against 4 Democratic mayors and all 3 vice mayors. The vice mayor of Barrigada, June Blas was elected without opposition.

[edit] Close races

In the election to the legislature, the top 15 vote-getters are elected, and the remainder aren't. A recount was held due to the closeness of the vote counts of the critical 15th/16th candidates. As a result, Joanne Brown (Republican), an incumbent, pushed then Speaker Ben Pangelinan into 16th place with a two vote lead.[8]

[edit] References