2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SIXTEEN - Election and Registration (§§ 1 — 4255) › Subtitle 6 - Election Code (2011) › Chapter 405 - Voters and Registration (§§ 4061 — 4081) › § 4077 - Challenge process

(a) In order to exclude a voter who appears in the General Voter Registry, a voter’s registration challenge and exclusion petition form shall be filed with the local election commission concerned, based on one or more of the following grounds:
(1) That the individual challenged is not a citizen of the United States of America, or Puerto Rico;
(2) that the individual challenged does not reside at the address stated in his/her application on the date of his/her registration, or on the date of the challenge;
(3) that the individual challenged is not at least eighteen (18) years old, nor will he/she attain such age on or before the date of the next general election;
(4) that the individual challenged is not the person he/she claims to be in his/her registration application;
(5) that the individual challenged has died;
(6) that the individual challenged has been declared mentally incompetent by a court of law, and
(7) that the individual challenged is registered more than once in the General Voter Registry.
(b) Every voter’s registration challenge petition form shall contain the following information regarding such voter as it appears in the General Voter Registry:
(1) Name and surnames.
(2) Date of birth.
(3) Voter’s residence address as it appears in the application for registration or in the updated Voter Registry.
(4) Grounds for challenge.
(c) The voter’s registration challenge petition form based on the aforementioned grounds (1), (2), (3), and (4) shall be filed under oath with the local commission of the voter’s precinct. The required oath may be administered by any member of the local commission, notary public, Clerk of any court, or official duly authorized by law to administer oaths in Puerto Rico.
Once the Chair of the Local Commission receives the challenge petition form, he shall schedule a hearing to be held within the following ten (10) days, to hear the pertinent evidence. The challenged voter, the challenger, and any other person as requested by the parties shall be summoned. The Local Commissioners of the various political parties, as well as the municipal chairs of the political committees of the various political parties shall also be notified. The Commission, upon petition and justification to such effect, shall be empowered to extend the term to hold said hearings. Notices containing the names of challenged voters shall be published periodically and timely by the Commission in a newspaper of general circulation during the term established by law to carry out such process.
The validity of the challenge petition form shall be decided by the unanimous agreement of the members of the Local Commission present at the time it is considered. If there is no unanimous agreement, the challenge shall be decided by the Chair of the Local Commission, this being the only occasion when he may be involved in a challenge.
The validity of the challenge petition form shall be decided by the unanimous agreement of the members of the local commission present at the time it is considered. If there is no unanimous agreement, the challenge shall be decided by the Chair, this being the only occasion in which he/she may be involved in a challenge.
Once it has been decided that the challenge is valid, the Chair of the Local Commission shall direct the exclusion of the voter from the General Voter Registry. When a challenge is grounded on the provisions of clauses (5), (6), and (7) of subsection (a), the exclusion shall be effected as determined by the Commission through regulations.
The Chair of the Local Commission shall specify in the order of exclusion whether the decision was made by unanimous agreement or by the Chair’s determination, and the reason therefor. The Commission, the Local Commissioners, the challenger, and the challenged voter shall also be notified.
If the challenged voter fails to appear at the hearing, such fact shall not prevent the challenger from presenting evidence.
Both the challenged voter and the challenger may appeal the determination before the Commission within the following five (5) days, except as provided for challenges on the grounds of voting residence.
History —June 1, 2011, No. 78, § 6.017; Nov. 21, 2011, No. 230, § 16; Dec. 22, 2014, No. 239, § 23.