Members of the St. Thomas-St. John District Board of Elections met Monday afternoon in a last-ditch effort to certify the 2014 primaries close to the Sunday deadline, but their hands were tied, ultimately due to a lack of quorum.
Only three board members were physically present in the Election System conference room on St. Thomas: Harry Daniel, vice-chairman of the board, and board members Claudette Georges and Larry Boschulte. Board member Alecia Wells attended via telephone, but could not vote or be officially counted as present for the purposes of certification.
Board Counsel Kimberly Salisbury and administrative assistant Angel Bolques were also present.
Daniel said that the meeting was pushed back to 2 p.m. that day at the request of Board Member Wilma Marsh-Monsanto, who told him she would be available at that time. Minutes past 2 p.m., the three board members decided to start the discussion while waiting for Monsanto, who would have been the fourth member needed to make quorum, but Monsanto never showed up.
Losing quorum before the primary results were certified has been a looming problem for the St. Thomas-St. John board since last week. On Thursday afternoon, Board Chairman Arturo Watlington indicated he had left the territory and would be “unreachable” for 10 days, and that other members of the board were also scheduled to leave the island.
During Monday’s meeting, Georges said they were unable meet on Sunday, Aug. 17 – the certification deadline – because Daniel, Watlington, Lydia Hendricks and Alecia Wells were unavailable.
Wells stressed that they were ready to meet on Friday, Aug. 15, but had to wait for clarification on how write-ins were supposed to be counted.
Boschulte asked if the three members of the board could certify the elections then, and possibly have Wells sign later or via mail. He cited previous elections when the certification were not signed by board members all at one time.
“Do we have to be present as a quorum? I have seen that we’ve certified election without a quorum,” said Boschulte, adding, “We FedEx it to [Wells], she signs it and that would be the fourth.”
Boschulte pressed that they may not need four votes, only four signatures.
Daniel said time was a problem since they were already past the certification deadline, but Salisbury had more fundamental concerns and leaned more toward the need for a quorum.
“The code says that the board shall convene,” said Salisbury. “To me, ‘shall convene’ means ‘shall convene a meeting.’ To have a valid action of the board, it has to have been voted on in a valid meeting.”
When asked if the board’s failure to certify the primaries by deadline constitutes a violation of the law, Salisbury said that it was technically a violation, but that the members of the board present Monday could not do anything without a quorum.
At 3:30 p.m., Daniel announced that in the absence of a quorum, the board would have to reconvene for the certification on Aug. 25 when a majority of the board members are expected back on-island.
Write-Ins
Another setback on timely certification was the board’s uncertainty on how write-ins should be counted, a factor that Wells said contributed to the board’s inability to certify on Aug.15, when they still had quorum.
Consulting technician Tonjia Coverdale explained to the board members Monday via telephone that the DS200 tabulators only returned images for the “marked” write-ins, or those in which voters wrote the name of the write-in candidate and filled in the bubble next to it. Coverdale said that upon research, in various jurisdictions, including those in New York and Florida, voter intent is determined only when the bubble is filled, in addition to the candidate’s name being written.
According to Coverdale, the board had two options: either count just the “marked” write-ins, or have the technicians pull the images for all the other write-ins for counting. The latter would take more time, she said.
Daniel said their decision should match up with that of the St. Croix district board, which had already certified and submitted its primary results to Election Supervisor Caroline Fawkes on Sunday, beating the deadline.
Daniel called St. Croix Deputy Election Supervisor Genevieve Whitaker, who confirmed via phone that St. Croix only counted the “marked” write-ins for the certification. The three board members eventually decided to simply count the “marked” write-ins.
Glitches
Coverdale also clarified a glitch in an unofficial territorial result run Aug. 14. In the Aug. 14 results, which merged numbers from both districts, the number of votes in the St. Thomas-St. John column soared for all candidates, compared with the Aug. 12 run.
In an email sent to Bolques, Coverdale stated that any merged results dated Aug. 14, although technically the latest, were inaccurate.
“When the [St. Thomas] data was merged with St. Croix to produce the territorial count, there was an issue with the merge, doubling St. Thomas’ numbers,” explained Coverdale.
Salisbury expressed concern on the accuracy of all the other results, but Coverdale said the district “does have the correct data that was left on Aug. 12.”
Casting of Lots
The St. Thomas-St. John board’s failure to certify the district primaries directly affects the casting of lots for the general election, which was already pushed back to Aug. 19.
Traditionally, both districts would cast lots simultaneously, but with certified results missing from the St. Thomas-St. John district, it is impossible to determine the final candidates for the general elections, especially with the tighter senatorial races on both districts.
“That would be the supervisor’s call,” said Salisbury, “whether she does what she can from St. Croix or waits to do it all at the same time.”
St. Croix District Board Chairman Adelbert Bryan, however, had already said in an earlier interview on Monday that St. Croix is set on holding the casting of lots as scheduled.
“I don’t have to do what St. Thomas does; we follow the law on St. Croix,” said Bryan. “St. Thomas would probably do what they want to do, but the law is clear. We set the date on [Aug. 19] and that’s how we do it on St. Croix.”
St. Thomas board members said that the St. Croix district could only cast lots for St. Croix positions, not the territory-wide positions. Bryan was asked how St. Croix can cast lots without being certain which candidates actually made the cut because of missing data from the other district.
“We certify the election according to law and we cast lots whether St. Thomas is ready or not,” said Bryan. “We follow the law and let the court decide who’s on the ballot and who’s not on the ballot.”
