Oct. 18, 2002 – The count is on at the Board of Elections where a last-minute rush of absentee ballot applications made it into the hands of officials Thursday, the last day to file.
"We have a significant number of applications for absentee ballots," Supervisor of Elections John Abramson Jr. said. "Today was the last day. We had a good flurry around the time of the 5 p.m. deadline. We got 50 applications in the last 15 minutes."
Most of the 11th-hour arrivals were by fax, Abramson said, but there also were "quite a few people" who showed up at the door of the Board of Elections offices on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
Clerical personnel spent Thursday evening counting the applications. Final figures will be available after the process is completed sometime Friday, Abramson said.
Absentee ballots allow registered V.I. voters to cast their votes without appearing at their polling places — whether they are traveling on election day, stationed abroad in the military, away at school or in physical circumstances that will not allow them to get to the polls.
In past elections, absentee votes have played a significant role in a number of races, especially for seats in the Legislature. In each district, the top seven voter-getters win the Senate races. It has not been unusual for the seventh-place position — and in one case the fifth through seventh positions — to shift from the election-day tally once the count of absentee ballots was added 10 days after an election.
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