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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesVOTER INTENT MAY DECIDE CHALLENGED STX BALLOTS

VOTER INTENT MAY DECIDE CHALLENGED STX BALLOTS

With only 15 votes separating Sen. Vargrave Richards and Senate candidate Raymond "Usie" Richards for St. Croix’s last Senate seat, the V.I. Attorney General’s opinion on the validity of 56 challenged absentee ballots could decide the contest.
Usie Richards’ challenge is based on "spoiled" ballots, where a voter marked the political party symbol on the ballot card but then chose names of candidates not in that party. Sen. Richards is a Democrat and Usie Richards is a member of the Independent Citizens Movement.
Of the 56 ballots in question, Usie Richards’ name is marked on 18 to 20. As of Wednesday night, it was unclear how many of the ballots included votes for Vargrave Richards.
A letter sent to V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron on Tuesday by Dodson James, chairman of the St. Croix Board of Elections, asked for an opinion on the validity of ballots when:
– A political party has a full slate of candidates and an elector votes for that symbol, then marks an ‘X’ next to an independent candidate or a candidate of another political party.
– A political party has a full slate of candidates and an elector marks an ‘X’ to the symbol for that political party and then marks an ‘X’ in the district next to the name of a candidate of the same party. Does a vote for the individual supersede the party emblem or symbol?
– A political party has a full slate of candidates and an elector marks an ‘X’ next to that party symbol, marks an ‘X’ to six candidates representing the same symbol and also marks an ‘X’ to the names of candidates of another party?
Usie Richards, however, said he felt that the board’s query to Stridiron misses the mark. Instead, he said it should be asking for an opinion on a voter’s intent.
"It’s obvious the chairman in his letter . . . has clearly misconstrued and misrepresented the reason for the attorney general’s opinion," Usie Richards said. "My concern of voter intent and of a guideline to review paper ballots haven’t been asked."
V.I. Code and local legal precedent touch on the issue of voter intent. Prior to 1984, paper ballots were used and, in instances where a vote for a party symbol and a non-party candidate was chosen, voter intent was applied.
With the advent of voting machines, however, the paper ballot statute was repealed. But the Legislature kept the provision regarding paper ballots if voting machines are not available or don’t work. And, absentee ballots are paper.
In the mid-1980s case of Stapleton v. the Board of Elections, St. Thomas-St. John, in which the validity of paper ballots were questioned because of voters choosing a party symbol and then marking non-party candidates, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that "the election statute makes it clear that the intention of the voter is paramount and should be given effect when it can be ascertained."
Meanwhile, Usie Richards, who is a member of the St. Croix Elections Board, said that the ballots in question aren’t only important to him and Sen. Richards, but to the 56 people who cast them.
"The Constitution provides that the voter has a right not only to speak, but to be heard," he said. "The voter’s right to speak and be recorded is paramount."
In Monday’s recount of absentee ballots, Sen. Richards landed 137 votes compared to his cousin’s 122. The absentee ballots broke the election night tie of 3,936 between the two men.

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