Members of the the V.I Joint Board of Elections will meet with representatives of the executive and legislative branches of government to explain the financial crisis facing the election system, which Supervisor of Elections John Abramson said threatens the ability of the agency to conduct this year’s November vote.
The decision was made Friday at a chaotic meeting of the joint board, held at the St. Croix Elections office at Sunny Isle.
The meeting was gaveled to order shortly after 10 a.m. and didn’t adjourn until 3 p.m., with an approximately 20 minute break for lunch. In between there was round after round of delays, obstructions and objections by member Adelbert Bryan, who objected – usually loudly and at length – to every motion made by any member other than himself.
Bryan talked and talked, more than all the other board members combined. Chairman Rupert Ross often found himself challenged by Bryan, gritting his teeth to call on the member for questions, points of order and objections.
In his report to the joint board, Abramson said the present staffing level forced by recent budget cannot meet all the mandates on the system.
"The ability of the organization to plan, prepare or implement the proposed election cycle is out of the agency’s reach," he told the board.
Elections lost $374,810 in the last round of budget cuts, he said.
Those cuts may actually have violated an agreement the territory entered into with the federal government in 2003 under the Help Americans Vote Act, according to Abramson. Under the agreement, the agency is required to maintain the expenditure of funds for activities covered by the agreement at not less than the level before November 2000m which Abramson said was about $1.8 million. With the latest budget cuts, the elections budget right now stands at around $1.1 million.
The board voted to have executive committee members meet with the two branches of government to find an alternative.
In the meantime, Abramson warned, "any additional loss of funds will render the agency insolvent."
The board also approved the 2012 election calendar, which contains all the dates and deadlines leading up to the Nov. 6 general election. The next item on that calendar is June 4, when forms for filing nomination petitions and papers will be available at all Election Systems offices.
The board heard a report from Abramson and Bryan on the efforts to purchase new voting machines for the territory. The superintendent said negotiations between the Department of Property & Procurement and an as-yet-unnamed vendor are progressing, but have not yet reached the point of fixing a price. Under normal procedure, the company that was chosen out of the three bidders remains anonymous until negotiations are completed.
Bryan, who had been chairman of the election reform committee and the panel that oversaw the effort to acquire new voting machines, asked that the committee’s choice be approved, but objected when board member Dotson James asked for a chance for the full board to meet with the vendor and view the equipment. Bryan accused fellow board members of trying to delay the decision until it was too late to implement in this election cycle.
Ross replied that the rest of the board had asked the committee to select a vendor, but had never ceded their rights to view the equipment or meet with the vendor themselves.
After a round of votes over whether to meet with the vendor and when to do so, the board asked Abramson to contact the vendor and find the earliest convenient time.
The board also voted to notify Senate President Ronald Russell the Senate must take action on several matters soon to prevent the territory from running afoul of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, known as the MOVE Act.
While much of the change required to bring the U.S.V.I. into compliance with the act was accomplished in Senate action last fall, several items still remain. Abramson said if the territory does not comply with the law, the U.S. Department of Justice might sue.
