Puerto Rico chief: Re-do part of vote

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor Tuesday added new demands to conflicting proposals for rescuing the U.S. territory’s botched primary election, suing to insist on an election re-do at all polling centers that opened late — not just those where a lack of ballots kept people from voting,

The lawsuit filed by Gov. Wanda Vazquez also seeks to stop the release of unconfirmed results from centers where voting did take place Sunday. The island’s Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

A failure to supply ballots and other issues kept people from voting at a little under half of the island’s 110 polling places.

“The uncertainty created since the process began in morning hours caused thousands of voters to leave the voting centers where chaos and confusion reigned,” according to Vasquez’s lawsuit, filed before the Court of First Instance.

Electoral officials have agreed to try to repair the problem by holding a second wave of voting this Sunday at centers where no one voted because of missing or delayed ballots. Vazquez wants the re-do to include centers that opened late as well.

A federal control board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances announced Tuesday that it has authorized $1.27 million for the second round of votes, warning in a letter that “the efficiency in the use of these funds is paramount.”

Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court is expected to rule this week on four other lawsuits spawned by the election problems. Pedro Pierluisi, who is running against Vazquez in the primary of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, seeks to have the votes cast so far tallied and made public.