Armed with the advice of the V.I. Attorney General's Office, the St. Croix Board of Elections will now decide the fate of 56 challenged absentee ballots, and with them the fate of the district’s last Senate seat.
After re-counting absentee ballots on Monday at the request of Senate candidate Raymond "Usie" Richards, who tied for St. Croix’s seventh Senate seat with Sen. Vargrave Richards, 56 ballots were deemed "spoiled" because of questions about which candidate had been voted for.
Those uncertainties spurred Usie Richards to challenge the ballots. The challenge, in turn, caused the board to seek an opinion from the attorney general on what constitutes a valid ballot. On Tuesday, Dodson James, chairman of the St. Croix Board of Elections, asked V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron 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" by 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" for six candidates representing the same symbol and also marks an "X" by the names of candidates of another party?
In an letter of advice Thursday, Acting Attorney General Alva Swan reminded board members that they have the authority to resolve questions regarding the validity of ballots. In doing so, Swan said the board should "endeavor to discern the intent of the voter, and if such intent can be divined, it should be given effect."
As for the board’s questions, Swan said that in the first two scenarios it appeared it would be impossible for the board to determine the intent of the voter, "and those ballots should be declared invalid or spoiled."
In the third scenario, Swan said it could be reasonably determined the voter’s intention, which would allow the ballots to be counted.
Regarding the first scenario, Swan said "the act of marking an "X" next to a party symbol and then proceeding to vote for a senatorial candidate who is not running as a member of that party, renders that voter’s intention impossible to determine."
That is so, he said, because in order to validate the vote the board would have to disregard either the symbol vote or the individual candidate vote.
"Such a determination would be the equivalent of substituting the Board’s judgment for that of the voter," Swan said.
The second scenario has similar conflicts, he said, and could only be resolved by the board making a decision for the voter, which would violate election law.
"Our advice is that the Board should exercise its reasoned judgment in making every effort to determine the intention of the elector," Swan said, "and when this is possible, such a ballot should be determined to be valid.
"When you are not able to make such a determination of voter intent, after due examination and deliberation, your only choice is to rule such a ballot spoiled."
James, the St. Croix board’s chairman, said he and his colleagues will convene sometime next week to discuss the ballots. He said it shouldn’t be too difficult to determine valid ballots from invalid ballots.
"I don’t think so, based on our guidelines. The board is going to try and bring some closure to this," he said, adding that whatever happens after that is "out of our hands."
Usie Richards, meanwhile, declined to comment in detail about the AG’s opinion. He did say that he wasn’t surprised and that he plans to write a letter to the board detailing his views on voter intent "so they will be clear."
"The concerns that I had were not posed to the attorney general" in the board's letter asking for advice, he said.
After Monday’s recount of absentee ballots, Sen. Richards lead his cousin by only 15 votes. Sen. Richards received 137 votes compared to Usie Richards’ 122. The absentee ballots broke the election night tie of 3,936 between the two men.
