May 31, 2007 — All polling places will be open and 75 polling machines will be readied and distributed for use on St. Croix in the June 12 special election for delegates to serve on this year’s Fifth Virgin Islands Constitutional Convention.
The St. Croix Board of Elections met Thursday to plan the nuts and bolts of carrying out the election, looking at the logistics of picking up and moving the machines, distributing walk-in ballots, preparing and training poll workers, counting the votes and arranging catering for the long evening of vote collecting and counting. The St. Thomas Board of Elections is doing the same, independently.
“It’s only eight or so months since the last election,” said board member Raymond Williams. “I think a cursory overview will be sufficient for most. It’s especially important they understand the crux of the process and are familiar with the layout of the ballot.”
The board should get read for some last-minute difficulties, said board member Jacqueline Heyliger.
”We have about 100 poll workers in each of the two groups,” she said. “But we’ll be getting calls right up until Election Day from workers saying they don’t want to do it anymore. There will probably be 20 who call on election morning.”
The unusual timing of this election creates some new, minor issues to think of.
“On the day of machine distribution, we need to check with the high school principals, to be sure we can come in and set up without disrupting the schools,” Heyliger said. “It’s the last day of school, so there may be special activities going on.”
At 10 a.m. Saturday, the St. Croix Board of Elections will test and certify voting machines at the Election System’s office across from the Water and Power Authority offices in the Sunny Isle Annex. They voted Thursday to continue past practice and randomly sample 10 percent of the machines. In this case, that means testing eight machines.
There have been four previous constitutional conventions, in 1965, 1972, 1978 and 1980, but for various reasons, no constitution has been installed to date. (For a detailed history of previous conventions, see “Constitutional Conventions: What's Gone Before.”)
This fifth constitutional convention was originally slated to occur in 2006, but in late 2005 the Legislature voted to postpone the process one year. The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Louis Hill, said at the time that holding the convention in an election year would not give it the credibility and seriousness it requires. Hill also said he was concerned that the public needed to be more informed about the convention.
There will be 30 delegates, 13 each from the St. Croix and St. Thomas/ St. John districts and another four elected at large – two from St. Croix and two from St. Thomas/St. John..
On July 23, the Fifth Constitutional Convention will convene at 10 a.m. at the Charlotte Amalie Senate Building. The convention will meet for a year and has until July 28, 2008, to produce a document. At least 20, or two-thirds of the delegates, must approve the document. Then the governor must sign it. Next it goes to the president, then Congress will weigh in and finally it will come back to the citizens of the territory to be voted upon in a referendum.
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