The V.I. Joint Board of Elections should discuss advertising for a new supervisor, St. Croix Board of Elections members agreed during a special meeting Monday.
The board largely agreed to that edict and six other items proposed by St. Croix Board Chairman Adelbert Bryan as suggested agenda topics for a Joint Board of Elections meeting scheduled for Friday on St. Croix.
The local Board of Elections meeting ran smoothly and amicably, with Bryan making a point of encouraging every member to take as much time as they wished to speak and members speaking to one another in a convivial, relaxed fashion. The comity marked a calm contrast to the sparks that have flown in recent St. Croix Board of Elections meetings. (See related links below)
Bryan opened up the floor for discussion of six items he proposed to send to the Joint Board for discussion at its meeting Friday on St. Croix. Those items were:
– to have an advertisement placed for the position of Supervisor of Elections "as soon as possible," to replace Supervisor John Abramson, who is on medical leave and retiring May 31;
– to document current balances and past expenditures of federal Help America Vote Act funds and other Election System funds;
– to discuss adding a requirement to have at least three signatures on the Election System imprest/petty cash fund, preferably the supervisor of elections and the chairs of the two district boards of elections;
– to invite Commissioner of Property and Procurement Lynn Millin Maduro for an update to the Joint Board of the status of the ES&S contract to purchase new voting machines;
– contact Management and Budget Director Debra Gottlieb to ask how $2.1 million appropriated by the Legislature for new voting machines and other elections purposes has been allotted.
Member Lisa Harris-Moorhead said the V.I. Legislature would be holding a hearing in June that will include election reform issues. She suggested the Joint Board should discuss what they would want to propose to the Legislature in advance of that hearing.
Bryan asked if there was any objection to adding that to his list of agenda items to present to the Joint Board, and it was approved without objection.
Member Raymond Williams said he felt most of the items should not be labeled "action items," with the exception of placing an ad for supervisor and discussing changing the number of signatories on the imprest fund.
"The other items are more administrative in nature," Williams said. “I think this information should be produced by the deputy supervisors. I don’t think they are action items. This information should always be available at the request of either chair.”
After the meeting, Bryan said he disagreed with that assessment and would still be submitting them for discussion.
Harris-Moorhead said the question of who can sign on the imprest fund is set by statute.
"If it needs legislative changes, maybe we can make recommendations to legislators," Bryan said.
"We would want to do that before the Senate hearings in June is what I was getting at," Harris-Moorhead said.
In other business, the board discussed voter registration and difficulties determining whether a person registered to vote in the territory is also registered and a voter in a stateside jurisdiction. It is illegal to vote in more than one U.S. jurisdictions. In discussion, members and staff suggested it is difficult to reliably check for voter registration fraud in advance of an election.
"What we can do is let the public know what the consequences are of not complying," Bryan said.
"I’m sure the media here can get the word out," Harris-Moorhead said.
Present were Bryan, Harris-Moorhead, Williams, Glenn Webster, Liliana de O’Neal, Roland Moolenaar and Rupert Ross. No one was absent.
