Since a local primary — in which candidates for the island's next governor, legislators and mayors were to be elected — was conducted on the same day as the presidential primary, the election commission unintendedly had too much work to do.
"We will resume tomorrow morning and try to close the local and presidential primaries at 100 percent," Prats told The Associated Press, explaining that election workers who worked until dawn were given a day off on Monday.
Conducting two primaries on the same day wasn't a smart decision, Prats admitted. The situation left a lot of residents frustrated, as some refused to wait in long lines and eventually left without voting.
"It presents some operational challenges like long lines like we had yesterday," he said. "We just have to learn from the lessons and make adjustments moving forward."
The chairman added that the poor organization was partly a consequence of limited resources, as the local Democratic Party was given roughly $300,000 to run this primary, compared to an estimated $1 million it received for the 2008 primary.
