While most items on Thursday’s district Board of Elections meeting got lost in more than three hours worth of arguing between board members, a few – including the consolidation of polls on St. Thomas-St. John during the upcoming primary – were actually put up for a vote.
The St. Thomas-St. John board voted to use Tutu Park Mall as the primary polling site on the East End, along with Addelita Cancryn Junior High (which will bring together half of the voters from Ulla F. Muller Elementary, all voters from Leonard Dober Elementary and voters from Water Island), Gladys Abraham Elementary, Charlotte Amalie High School gymnasium and Joseph Sibilly Elementary.
One polling site, at Julius Sprauve School, will also be open on St. John during the primary.
To go along with the decision to use Tutu Park Mall (which will bring together voters from Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School, E. Benjamin Oliver Elementary, Joseph Gomez Elementary and Estate Anna’s Retreat), board members also voted to purchase special event insurance for the site, which will help to protect the mall against liability.
During Thursday’s meeting, the board also read into the record concerns from gubernatorial candidate Adlah “Foncie” Donastorg, who spoke about everything from ethical issues with poll watchers to how the board plans to “account” for the reduction in the number of machines available to voters, given the consolidation of polling places.
St. Thomas-St. John District Board of Elections Chairman Arturo Watlington Jr. said that most of the issues could be addressed by the Election System’s supervisor, but otherwise, any issues with the ballot and how the machines are used boils down to a good public education campaign, which he added the board is working on.
“The whole thing this year is that we’re voting on paper and that is a big change, but I think once people understand the ballot and become familiar with it, they will be alright,” Watlington said. “The ballot the last time was released late, but that is not going to happen this year and we’re trying to do as much voter outreach as we can.”
Watlington added that good public outreach could also help to prevent the number of spoiled votes seen during the primary.
“There will always be a percentage of spoiled paper ballots,” he said. “But once again, getting people familiar with what the ballot looks like is the key. We’re doing everything we can to reduce the number of spoiled ballots we see.”
