Elections Board meeting ends without protesters speaking

ST. CROIX - About a dozen citizens at the St. Croix Board of Elections meeting Wednesday left angry and feeling justified in the six petitions filed to recall all but one member of the district board.

After a quick meeting in which more than six residents sat with their hands raised, waiting to be called on to address the board, they stormed out of the conference room, dismissing an attempt made by board Chairman Rupert Ross Jr. to field their questions and concerns.

Colleen Clarke, who has spearheaded the recall campaign and filed two letters that were addressed by the board Wednesday, said the board's failure to act on its authority to address a number of issues was one of the central elements of the recall petitions.

"That is why we are trying to recall them, because they're failing to fulfill their duties," she said after the meeting.

The meeting Wednesday touched briefly on a number of issues, almost all of which were discussed only slightly because they are scheduled to be on the agenda of the upcoming V.I. Joint Board of Elections meeting on Feb. 17 on St. Croix. Those matters included new voting machines, e-Poll books, voting assistance programs and an impending lack of funding for the 2012 general election.

At the meeting, four board members were present: Ross, Dodson James, Lisa Moorhead and Ana Davila.

According to a letter sent to Ross from V.I. Elections Supervisor John Abramson Jr., the Elections Office's budget has dropped by $300,000 since the last election cycle, and it recently was told it must cut an additional $37,405 from its current budget.

"The Election System of the Virgin Islands is in a very questionable financial position," Abramson wrote. He recommended that the Joint Board take "immediate action" to meet with the V.I. Legislature and Executive Branch to "discuss alternatives to resolve the agency's financial crisis."

The budget for the next election cycle will not need to be quite as large as in previous years because a new law requires political parties, not the Elections System, to pay for and conduct their own primary elections, but "to date no funds have been identified or appropriated" for the upcoming general election.

The Joint Board also will discuss new voting machines at the upcoming meeting, Ross said. The selection committee for the purchase of new voting machines is in "the final stages" of making recommendations to the V.I. Property and Procurement Department about which company it recommends.

Ross wrote to Property and Procurement Commissioner Lynn Millin-Maduro, requesting that the department wait for the Joint Board to have an opportunity to meet with the company for a demonstration before the contract is awarded, according to a letter released at the meeting.

The St. Croix board approved a recommendation from the University of the Virgin Islands that a voter registration drive be held April 11 to give students the opportunity to register, which is a legal requirement under the V.I. Code.

Clarke's letters drew the most attention from the residents present. The first requested that the board reopen the question of Sen. Alicia Hansen's eligibility to run for office in the 2010 election because she had been convicted in federal court for failure to file tax returns, which is a misdemeanor under federal law.

The matter initially came before the board late last year after Michael Springer, president of Crucians in Focus and an unsuccessful senatorial candidate in the 2010 election, asked the board to investigate.

After receiving an opinion from V.I. Attorney General Vincent Frazer, the board acted on Dec. 22, finding that Hansen was eligible at the time; further, that the board had no authority to act on the matter and that it is a matter for the Legislature to decide.

Clarke requested that the board look specifically at the question of moral turpitude to determine whether failure to report tax returns qualifies as a crime of moral turpitude. In the absence of legal clarity in the Virgin Islands, Frazer's initial letter on the matter advised the board that it had the power to come up with a list of crimes of moral turpitude, though no such list has been created.

Ross described it as "an issue that, in my judgement, this board has acted upon." He went on to reiterate that the board determined that the Legislature is the proper body to investigate the matter, under the Revised Organic Act of 1954.

The board voted unanimously to forward Clarke's complaint to the Legislature.

Clarke's second letter asked the board to make a determination on the number of signatures required to initiate a recall election. Abramson has said 11,492 signatures are required for each of the six recall petitions filed for St. Croix board members - everyone but board member Adelbert Bryan. However, Clarke and others have contested the high threshold.

The board voted to seek Frazer's opinion on the new matter to determine whether the board has authority over the issue.

"It's the chair's position that the board has no role to play in this issue," Ross said, though he said the attorney general may decide otherwise.

- Contact Daniel Shea at 714-9127 or email dshea@dailynews.vi.

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