The results of the Nov. 6 general election were certified Wednesday by the district election boards of St. Croix and St. Thomas/St. John, bringing to an end a long elections season in which how the ballots were cast and counted was at least as contentious as the candidate races themselves.
The final list of winners did not change from election night’s unofficial tally.
Thousands of paper ballots, along with absentee ballots, had to be counted by hand, causing the final result to drag out two weeks after Election Day.
On St. Croix, Board of Elections Chairman Rupert Ross said he was pleased with how things went despite the time it took to tally the paper ballots.
“I’m very proud of the work that the board members and staff have done in making sure that the integrity of the process was maintained,” Ross said. “It might have taken a longer period of time than most people would have wanted, but we did so in accordance with the timetables established by law and we’re pleased with that.”
“It was very grueling,” he said of staff having to count some 2,000-plus paper ballots that had been cast at the polls. “Keep in mind that it’s the same time span that we had to certify prior elections when we didn’t have paper ballots.”
Amid complaints from at least two unsuccessful candidates citing an extended time period to complete the count as well as internal procedural challenges, St. Thomas/St. John Election Board member Lawrence " Larry" Boschulte cited non-specific directions from the Attorney Generals office as a contributing factor to the delay.
"The Attorney General’s office should have ‘stepped up’ in defining exactly how many members of the board were required to be in attendance in order to continue with the count. This created a challenge between board members as to who could call the votes valid and who could not with who was present at any one time," Boschulte said.
St. Croix Chairman Ross said he expected “different parameters” will be in place in 2014 when it came to counting the paper ballots.
“I’d anticipate that we’d have new voting machines (that can tabulate the results of paper ballots quickly) and therefore the method of tabulating the votes cast on Election Day would be significantly different,” he said. “The methods used in 2012 will be a thing of the past.”
Paper ballots had not been used at the polls in the territory since 1986, said Ross, who added that the cost of using them was “significant.” An exact amount won’t be known for a few weeks, he said.
Ross also said “spoiled ballots” are a reality of using paper ballots and that the staff would provide in the future the number of “spoiled ballots” cast. “Spoiled ballots” by definition, he said, are ballots where the voter chose too many candidates for a particular race. Those “spoiled ballots” are not tabulated or included in the final certified count.
Ross said like any process, there is always room for improvement.
“I would hope one of these days the territory would consider early voting as an option,” he said. “As I look forward, I think there will be some significant improvement in the process for the 2014 election.”
Boschulte said despite problems and complaints, he believed the election ultimately was fair.
"We are used to hearing complaints each year as the process comes to fruition. I personally do not believe any vote was dis-enfranchised" due to inattention on the part of the elections staff, he said.
As to complaints concerning prior education on the use of paper ballots by voters, Boschulte asked, "The voting process can at times be confusing. When do we put the onus of responsibility on the voter when it comes to properly completing the ballot be they paper or machine?"
"Ballot education should not just be limited to paper ballots but to machine voting as well."
On St. Croix, the board reported a total of 24,379 registered voters on the island, with 14,641 casting ballots. That equaled a 60 percent voter participation rate. Of those participating, 11,224 used the machines at the polls, 2,812 used paper ballots at the polls, 592 voted absentee and 13 cast provisional ballots.
On St. Thomas, of 25,507 registered voters, 14,002 cast votes, for a 55 percent participation rate. Of those, 12,041 used voting machines, 888 cast paper ballots, 929 voted absentee and 154 provisional ballots were cast.
In the race to be the delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, Donna M. Christensen easily won re-election, nearly doubling her closest challenger, Warren B. Mosler. Christensen finished with 13,273 votes- 5,948 on St. Croix and 7,325 on St. Thomas. Mosler finished with 3,968 of which 3,007 votes came from St. Croix. On St. Thomas.
For the senator-at-large slot, Craig W. Barshinger also easily won re-election, finishing with 12,795 votes territory-wide – 6,180 on St. Thomas and 6,615 votes on St. Croix. His competition, Wilma Marsh-Monsanto, finished with 5,759.
With regard to the referendum question, “Are you in favor of the legislature enacting legislation that allows for the productions, processing, manufacturing and distributing of industrial hemp in the Virgin Islands?,” 4,550 voted yes and 3,374 voted no, for a whopping 74 percent margin of victory.
In the St. Thomas/St. John District Senate race, Clifford Graham was the top Senate vote-getter, with 7,727 votes. His nearest competitor, Myron Jackson had 5,331 votes. Shawn-Michael Malone had 5,249 votes, followed by Sen. Janette Millin Young with 4,924 votes Clarence Payne with 4,350 votes, Tregenza Roach with 4,213 votes, and Donald "Ducks" Cole with 3,667 votes.
For the St. Thomas Board of Elections, Arturo Watlngton Jr. led with 3,546, followed by Alecia Wells with 2,615, Lydia Hendricks with 2,464 and Lawrence "Larry" Boschulte with 2,273.
For the St. Thomas Board of Education seats, Judy Gomez led with 5,147, followed by Nandi Sekou with 3,948, Debra Smith-Watlington with 3,791 and Arah Lockhart with 3,790.
For the seven Senate seats that will come from St. Croix, the top vote-getters were incumbents Alicia “Chucky” Hansen, 5,461 votes, and Sammuel Sanes, 5,221 votes. Joining them will be Judi Fricks-Buckley, 5,124, incumbent Nereida Rivera O’Reilly, 4,800 votes, Diane Capehart, 4,471, incumbent Terrence “Positive” Nelson, 4,359 votes, and Kenneth L. “Kenny” Gittens, 3,809 votes. Incumbent Sen. Neville James was the only candidate to garner more than 3,000 votes in St. Croix voting and still finish out of the running.
In the Board of Elections race, Lilliana Belardo de O Neal led the way with 4,191 votes, followed by Lisa Harris Moorhead, 3,305, Roland L. Moolenaar, 2,587, and Glenn Webster, 2,214. Epiphane “Joe” Joseph came up just short, finishing with 2,066 votes.
Oswin Sewer finished with 2,351 votes in the Board of Education at-large contest. In fact, his only competition came from a few lone write-in votes. Among those were, “Janis Esannason," "Janis A. Essannason Board of Education" and "Janis Essannison,” along with a slew of others, most notably, “Bacak Obama and Jesus Christ.”
When it came to the four board of education spots from St. Croix, Terrence T. Joseph took in the most votes finishing with 4,304, followed by Winona “Pat” Hendricks, 3,637, Mary “Peggy” Moorhead, 3,278, and Martial A. Webster, Sr., 2,616 votes. Janis A. Esannason took in the most write-in votes in this race, finishing with 56 votes, and then received even more with votes coming in for her in exactly 22 different spellings of her name.
The St. Croix election results were certified by five of the seven board members. Adelbert M. “Bert” Bryan and Ana L. Davila were absent.
St. Thomas results were certified by Alecia Wells, Lawrence "Larry" Boschulte, Colette White-Amaro and Lorna Thomas, with Wilma Monsanto and Claudette Georges absent.
Full results are available at the Elections website, http://vivote.gov
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