Senators Call For Single Board of Elections After Heated Committee Of The Whole Hearing

St. Thomas — Members of the Virgin Islands Joint Boards of Elections (BOE) met at the Earle B. Ottley Legislative Hall on Tuesday evening, ready to field questions from members of the 31st Legislature at a Committee of the Whole hearing in relation to the historic 2014 primary and general elections, the numerous issues faced, and concerns raised during the process.

Throughout the night, senators pressed BOE members on controversies like the constant breaking of quorum at important meetings; the alleged problems with DS200 voting machines and the confusion over whether or not they worked properly during the elections. There were also concerns over the board’s authority in determining who should be on the ballot, and the Alicia “Chucky” Hansen saga that engulfed the entire 2014 elections.

Senator Jean Forde of St. Thomas and Kenneth Gittens of St. Croix both called for the dissolving of two boards to be replaced with one, and Gittens made known that he’s already working on legislation to create the new system.

Frustrated with the responses given throughout the night by board members, Gittens said he was vexed by the constant disorder at board meetings.

“Listening to all of this, I’m pretty sure that people are just totally confused,” he began. “I am totally, totally displeased with the performance of the boards — all boards. And going forward, I’m really not seeing any solutions here.”

He added: “What else does it take for individuals to be on the board? One board is coming, because I have that in [process] and I will be working on it with legal counsel to get it out because it seems like that’s what we need.”

Gittens, the author of a bill that introduced early voting in 2014, was even more perplexed that the process was halted on St. Croix because of the Hansen court battles while early voting continued normally on St. Thomas.

“What it seemed like to me, since early voting only stopped in the St. Croix district, was as if you all were sitting back, waiting to see if somebody’s name was going to get on the ballot. Why didn’t St. Croix get the opportunity just like St. Thomas to continue?” Gittens asked.

The senator said he felt as if board members on St. Croix were dragging their feet waiting for the courts to decide the Hansen issue, all while stalling the early voting process on the big island.

“I am so livid I don’t even know where to start with these questions,” Gittens continued. “I’m totally livid. We’re talking about spending over half a million dollars on machines and not even a choir singing here today. Everybody with their own sheet of music.”

Sen. Forde also questioned the wisdom behind having two election boards for the territory, and sought answers from board members on the matter.

“I don’t see how one board of elections would work,” Joint Boards Chairwoman Alecia Wells said. “I think we definitely need the two boards especially because, sometimes, St. John is never referred to in any of the boards.

Forde pressed harder, stating that he could not understand Wells’ stance that one board would not work, and pointed towards testimony given by Elections Supervisor Caroline Fawkes that, among the issues faced during the 2014 elections, was a failure to fully standardize the elections process territory-wide.

Wells, however, disagreed.

“I didn’t think that in the last election there was a problem with the rules and regulations,” she said. “It’s the interpretation of the rules and regulations that caused some of the confusion. And once we could get on the phone or got emailed or whatever, and explained what the St. Thomas-St. John district board was doing to St. Croix or vice versa, I didn’t see no problems at all.”

Senate President Neville James later questioned board members on the tardiness in which voting results were released on St. Croix. Fawkes attempted to explain that some votes had to be hand-counted, however James reminded the elections supervisor of past elections where no voting machines were used, however results were available in the wee hours of the following morning.

St. Thomas district Board Chairman Arturo Watlington said it would be unfair to put his district in the same category because counting in said district was complete in a timely fashion. The chairman then blamed power outages at two polling stations for St. Croix’s late results.

Current St. Croix Board Chairwoman Lilliana Belardo de O’neal also blamed the delays on power outages, and said the machines were not recording symbol votes, therefore they needed to be separated at the polling stations before being brought to the Elections System office.

Still, some senators left the meeting unsatisfied with what they heard from board members. Among them was Sen. Nellie Rivera O’Reilly, who had an intimate stake in the results of the election recount, and was concerned about the events that unfolded during that time.

On Tuesday, October 28, 2014, O’Reilly issued an emergency written notice to the Honorable Jack Smith, Chief, Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, requesting the Federal authority launch an investigation into the Virgin Islands Board of Elections.

The Senator wrote that “the inconsistencies from the Board of Election are cause for alarm regarding all matters of the election, to include early voting, absentee ballots, the custody of ballots, and numerous other allegations.”

In relation the measure seeking to create a single board of elections to govern the territory, it remains an unknown as to how far along it is, and when it will brought up for a vote.

Feature Image Credit: Aisha Zakiya

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