[FACT CHECK] Jenniffer González on Employee Who Leaked Confidential Electoral Data: “I Can’t Fire Her, Aníbal Can’t Fire Her”

The gubernatorial candidate and president of the New Progressive Party (PNP), Jenniffer González, made a statement contradicting the Electoral Code, regulations, and administrative practices of the State Elections Commission (CEE), to distance herself from the oversight of the agency employee who leaked private electoral information about attorney and media personality, Mayra López Mulero, in a chat group that includes PNP officials and supporters.

González denied that Carmen Vázquez Fraguada, a registration officer of the San Juan Permanent Registration Board (JIP, in Spanish), who was dismissed after admitting she shared López Mulero’s information with third parties, was a party employee and that the chat where the information was shared belonged to the PNP.

“The CEE is composed of political parties, and this person was an official of the CEE for over 24 years, and as part of the electoral balance, she was at that table representing the PNP, but she is an employee of the Commission, not an employee of the PNP. I can’t fire her, Aníbal [Vega Borges, PNP’s Electoral Commissioner] can’t fire her. This is a situation that the President of the CEE dealt with. She has already conducted the investigation, so there’s nothing left to investigate,” González stated. “It was not a recruitment by the PNP,” she insisted.

She added that the CEE has a staff, and the agency is responsible for recruiting, supervising, and paying its employees. She stressed that, as president of the PNP, she can only dismiss the Electoral Commissioner and the Alternate Commissioner. She insisted that only they represent the PNP within the CEE.

“I don’t have any other employees besides the Electoral Commissioner and the Alternate Commissioner. I can’t remove or recruit any other employee of the CEE. Saying that an employee of an agency is an employee of the PNP is, first, legally incorrect, and second, the President has already decided to dismiss summarily. I have nothing to do with that,” González reiterated in an attempt to “end the discussion.”

While it’s true that only electoral commissioners represent their parties in full in CEE meetings, political parties recruit employees working in political offices, like the JIP, who represent them to ensure electoral balance, and are considered political appointees trusted by the party, according to the Electoral Code.

“The positions of JIP members are political appointees representing their respective parties and can be dismissed by the Electoral Commissioner of their Political Parties,” reads Article 4.7 of the Electoral Code. This provision contradicts González’s statement during a press conference on Friday at the PNP convention at the Caribe Hilton Hotel in San Juan.

The CEE’s Rules of Conduct, Corrective Measures, and Disciplinary Actions also define the political nature of these appointments, such as Vázquez Fraguada’s. The regulation defines political party appointees as those whose positions are “subject to the recommendation and trust of the respective Electoral Commissioners, with the consent of the CEE President.”

According to the regulation, as a political party appointee, Vázquez Fraguada’s appointment and dismissal are at the discretion of the party’s Commissioner. Administratively, these measures require the signature of the CEE President, and the CEE must also carry out the administrative process for removal, as outlined in the regulation covering disciplinary actions within the agency.

Electoral Commissioners from the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), Roberto Iván Aponte Berrios; the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC), Lillian Aponte Dones; the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), Karla Angleró González; and Proyecto Dignidad (PD), Juan M. Frontera Suau, agreed that JIP employees are political party appointees.

Frontera Suau said the JIP operates under the electoral balance, meaning each employee represents a political party. Although they sign a contract with the CEE, they are appointed by political parties. The CEE cannot refuse to hire them unless they fail to meet minimum requirements, such as passing a drug test.

“The political party is the one who gives instructions to that employee and supervises their work. Everyone who works here at the CEE and heard what Jenniffer said at that press conference knows what she said is not true,” the PD commissioner stated.

“Article 3.8 of the Electoral Code states that any person applying for a position of balance or trust must also meet the requirements established by each party’s Commissioner,” the PPD commissioner added.

“If [Vázquez Fraguada] had been with the Commission for 24 years, it means she was appointed back then by the PNP’s Electoral Commissioner and is a political appointee of that party,” said Aponte Berríos.

“They are our political party appointees, and that’s more than clear,” added her MVC counterpart.

Former PPD Electoral Commissioner Gerardo “Toñito” Cruz told the CPI that years ago he was taken to court for firing a member of his electoral team at a JIP and prevailed in asserting that it was a party employee of the PPD.

However, PNP Electoral Commissioner Vega Borges stated, while speaking alongside González at the press conference, that the CEE’s Alternate President had dismissed Vázquez Fraguada because “it wasn’t an action related to her party.”

“If we had the power [to dismiss her], the President wouldn’t have dismissed her. She would have left that decision to us, wouldn’t she? Right?” he said.

The personnel rules state that party’s employees are subject to dismissal “at the request of the respective Electoral Commissioners.” It specifies that they are not “subject to dismissal by the Commission President” and that the regulation will apply in cases where disciplinary action is initiated by someone other than the party’s Electoral Commissioner.

“Political appointees in electoral balance positions for political parties are not subject to dismissal by the President. However, when the conduct of these employees does not comply with the standards outlined in this regulation, the President’s authority to impose appropriate disciplinary actions is safeguarded, with prior notice to the Commissioner of the party to which the employee belongs.”

The dismissed employee not only provided services to the PNP as an organization but was also part of PNP Representative Jorge “Georgie” Navarro Alicea’s electoral team, according to statements the legislator made in two videos posted on social media in September, while he was outside the JIP of San Juan submitting early voting applications.

The name of the chat is “PNP,” and according to López Mulero’s complaint, one of the administrators is PNP activist Raymond Rivera. The group chat also includes former Representative Ángel “Gary” Rodríguez and former Labor Department Secretary Carlos Rivera Santiago, as seen in the chat’s screenshot where the lawyer’s information was shared. Vega Borges is also part of the WhatsApp group, but when approached by journalists at the PNP convention on Sunday, he claimed not to know he was in the chat.

The screenshot shows that Vázquez Fraguada’s post was a forward, indicating that the electoral information had been shared before.

Alternate CEE President Jessika Padilla Rivera confirmed earlier in the week, in an interview with Radio Isla, that Carmen Vázquez Fraguada was a PNP political appointee.

“We will not comment on the employee’s name until we advance further in the investigation and speak directly with the Commissioner [Vega Borges], as the employee is a trusted [PNP] member responsible for electoral balance, and the Commissioner must first be informed of the investigation’s findings,” stated the Alternate CEE President.

Padilla Rivera assured that the information exposed in the chat was confidential and only accessible to CEE registration officers using the platform called Advance Civil Id.

González’s claim that the PNP Electoral Commissioner could not fire Vázquez Fraguada is false, as the Electoral Code states that “JIP members are trusted employees for the parties they represent and can be dismissed by the Electoral Commissioner of their respective political parties.” Likewise, Vega Borges’ assertion that the CEE recruits and supervises electoral officials is also false. As explained by all the other electoral commissioners, the political parties select and manage their officials at the CEE, even though they become agency employees. Furthermore, the CEE’s Alternate President acknowledged Vega Borges’ authority in the disciplinary process.