Jeff’s Pirates Cove’s Jeff Pleadwell and Beans and Barrels’ Charlie Hermosa are teaming up to take on Adelup as independents this election, but they’ll be faced with a high hurdle.

“We want the flexibility to do what is needed and not be held back by party constraints,” said Jeff Pleadwell.

They picked up their candidate packets for Governor and Lieutenant Governor on April 1, livestreaming the event on Facebook. Pleadwell says his bid for Governor isn't an April Fool's joke.

“I ran 40 years ago in 1986. I’ve been waiting for things to get better, voting in every election, but I’ve noticed things have gotten worse, not better,” added Pleadwell.

Guam Election Commission records show Pleadwell ran for Governor in 1986 as an independent, but failed to reach the General Election with 760 votes in the primary.

It’s historically harder for independent candidates to advance to the General Election as they have a higher vote threshold and a crossover rule many voters forget.

KUAM asked Guam Election Commission Executive Director Maria Pangelinan, “Do you recall if anyone won the primary or even the general as an independent, whether it’s for governor or any other seat?”

She said, “No, not in my time.”

“The winning number of [votes] republicans and democrats (need) is only 1500. [The independent’s] minimum is 20% of the total votes of both the republican and democrat winning candidate,” added Pangelinan. “If voters decide to vote on the independent column, voters can’t cross over to either republican or democrat at all.”

In the primary election, voters must vote only in one column. That means no crossovers or the ballot will be void, throwing votes out for all races.

Crossovers have long been a problem in Guam Primary Elections.

When panglinan first came onboard 14 years ago, the GEC saw 2,369 crossovers in Guam's 2012 election.

The number of crossovers have fluctuated throughout the years, with 852 ballots invalid in the last election.

“No matter how many times we mention it, we still have a bunch of crossovers,” said Pangelinan. “We cannot stress enough that what that does is it cancels his or her ballot totally.”

These laws are the subject of an ongoing federal lawsuit by University of Guam Professor Dr. Ron McNinch against the GEC.

“It’s still in litigation. I’m not able to talk about that,” said Pangelinan.

But the bottom line, Pangelinan says, “We follow the law. Whatever the law says, we follow. We’re not the ones that make the law.”

Meantime, the duo has yet to file their candidate packets.

The deadline for all candidates is May 1.

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