The last senatorial seat from St. Croix hung in the balance Tuesday night with about 500 absentee ballots remaining to be counted. Those votes could well decide whether challenger Raymond "Usie" Richards unseats incumbent Sen. Vargrave Richards.
The final tally put Douglas Canton at the top of the heap, followed closely by another incumbent, Sen. Norman Jn Baptiste. The top eight vote-getters before absentee ballots are counted were as follows.
1. Douglas Canton, 5,851
2. Norman Jn Baptiste, 5,758
3. Emmitt Hansen II, 5,501
4. David Jones, 4,885
5. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, 4,768
6. Adelbert "Bert" Bryan, 4,323
7. Raymond "Usie" Richards, 3,936
8. Vargrave Richards, 3,936
Voters were overwhelmingly in favor of reducing the size of the Legislature.
Early results showed only 276 voters against reducing the size of the Senate, compared to 1,888 for the proposal. Of those voting yes, 306 favor having 11 senators and 1,571 prefer just nine.
Early results on St. Croix of voting for Delegate to Congress and the at-large seat were as follows as of publication:
Delegate:
1. Donna Christian-Christiansen, 10,148
2. Jorge Estemac, 880
3. Victor Frazier, 1530
Senator at large:
1. Almando Liburd, 6589
2. Craig Barshinger, 4014
