Territorial Court Presiding Judge Maria Cabret Monday ordered the St. Thomas Board of Elections not to certify the final results of the 2000 general election until a hearing is held into a complaint brought by Sen. George Goodwin over how absentee ballots were counted.
Goodwin filed suit last week, suggesting that absentee ballots should not be counted because the majority contained no postmark to indicate whether they were mailed prior to Nov. 7, election day.
Cabret's order came in the form of the 10-day temporary restraining order Goodwin sought. Cabret then assigned the case to Territorial Court Judge Ishmael Meyers. Meyers has been off island and as of Monday evening had not set a date on the hearing.
In a five-page ruling, Cabret said the granting of a TRO allows the court to consider all arguments presented to it before making a decision.
"The public interest will not be served if election results are certified under a cloud of uncertainty," she wrote.
Because of the absentee ballots, Goodwin lost his Senate seat to a fellow Democrat, Sen. Lorraine Berry, who finished eighth in the general election but advanced to the seventh position after gaining more than 260 absentee votes.
