On September 1, the Northern Mariana Islands Election Commission voted to change the ballot format in future elections (including this year’s gubernatorial election) from a party column format, to an office-group format. See this story.

The party column format promulgated a few weeks ago put the Republican column and the Covenant Party column on the front side of the ballot. The Democratic Party column, and independent columns, were on the back of the ballot. That lead to a protest, which caused the Commission to reverse itself.