Results of the territory’s senatorial election remained in doubt early Wednesday morning as thousands of paper ballots sit uncounted on St. Croix and St. Thomas.
Election officials said there were simply too many ballots to count Tuesday night and they plan to reconvene Wednesday at 1 p.m. to begin tallying the results.
Use of paper ballots was especially heavy in the St. Croix district where election officials estimate around 2,700 were cast. St. Thomas officials estimate their paper ballots at only about 500.
Supervisor of Elections John Abramson, Jr. would not guarantee that the counting of the paper ballots would be completed Wednesday. He said the boards of elections in both districts intended to work until 5 p.m. and would then inform him of their progress.
Preliminary results were available Tuesday evening, however, based on the tally of electronic votes.
Incumbent Sen. Alicia Hansen leads the Senate race on St. Croix with 4,908 votes. She is followed by Sen. Sammuel Sanes with 4,662 votes, Judi Fricks-Buckley with 4,485 votes, Nereida Rivera O’Reilly with 3,983 votes, Diane Capehart with 3,846 votes, Terrence Nelson with 3,696 votes, and Kenneth L. Gittens with 3,042 votes.
With the large number of votes yet to be counted Sen. Neville James, Arthur Joseph, Jamila Russel and Naomi Sandra Joseph still have a realistic chance of seizing one of the district’s seven seats with 2,636, 2,125, 1,837, and 1,745 votes respectively.
In the St. Thomas/St. John District Clifford Graham leads by a large margin with 6,530 votes. His nearest competitor, Shawn-Michael Malone currently has 4,561 votes, followed by Myron D. Jackson with 4,454 votes, Sen. Janette Millin Young with 4,243 votes, Clarence Payne with 3,680 votes, Tregenza Roach with 3,644 votes, and Donald Coles with 3,283 votes.
With 500 ballots yet to be counted, Justin Harrigan’s hopes are still alive with 2,970 votes.
Sen. Craig Barshinger secured victory in the senator-at-large race with 10,969 votes compared to 4,614 votes for his challenger, Wilma Marsh-Monsanto.
Donna M. Christensen also cemented her re-election as the territory’s delegate to Congress with 11,512 votes. Her closest challengers, Warren Mosler and Holland Redfield II, received 3,276 and 2,131 votes respectively.
Despite a general dissatisfaction with the legislature amongst the public, the election proved kinder to incumbents than many had thought. Of the nine sitting senators on the ballot, seven are currently in position to the re-elected and Sen. Neville James is still in contention at 8th place in the St. Croix district.
The one casualty of the evening is Senate President Ronald Russell, who is currently in 14th place in the St. Croix district with 1,530 votes. Russell found himself in the media spotlight over the last month as he went to court in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the release of legislative financial records connected to the Inspector General’s 2011 audit.
Russell could not be not be reached for comment Tuesday night.
Though she won easily, Christensen said she felt the impact of the territory’s anti-incumbent attitude while campaigning and that she understood why people were angry.
“They are in such distress right now over any number of things,” she said. “The cuts in salaries, the layoffs, Hovensa closing, the cost of WAPA going up, the question about whether they’re going to be able to buy gasoline to drive around in the next few months, all of those pressing things tend to make people forget all of the stuff we have been able to do, because they have immediate needs that are not being met. They want relief now. It made it a more difficult election.”
Christensen said one of her top priorities would be to coordinate between the Water and Power Authority and various energy agencies in Washington D.C. to see what stop-gap measures could be taken to lower utility bills.
“We want to see if we can bring some relief in the near term while we work on some of the longer term energy problems,” she said.
This sentiment was echoed by new and sitting senators alike.
Calling WAPA “our common denominator,” Graham promised to make lowering the territory’s high cost of living his first priority, while Sen. Sanes said he would introduce a proposal in the 30th Senate to covert WAPA’s power plants to a liquefied natural gas.
Another topic that may generate some conversation in the next session is industrial hemp. A ballot poll asking voters whether they would like the legislature to explore the possibility of building a hemp industry in the territory looks as though it will pass easily. Currently the vote stands at 3,001 for and 1,932 against.
Sen. Terrence Nelson spoke in favor of the initiative and chastised those who portrayed it as a measure to legalize marijuana. He said that while hemp is related to marijuana, it cannot be used as a recreational drug because it has low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
He also pointed out that the poll legalized nothing. It simply asked for the public’s opinion.
Nelson said he envisioned hemp production as a viable industry for the territory. He does not believe it should be controversial as hemp has become an ingredient in a wide range of mainstream products.
“If you look at the shelves in the beauty stores, in the food stores, in the clothing stores, in the hardware stores, you will see hemp products there now,” he said. “The truth of the matter is the hemp industry in America is over half a billion dollar industry. The irony is that America imports all its raw hemp.”
He said he would like to pursue the issue further in the next legislature, provided his lead in the polls holds up.
“It’s not conclusive yet,” he said. “There’s still 3,100 votes out. I hope I’m still in the mix somewhere between one and seven.”
Sen. Nelson is currently in sixth place in the St. Croix district.
The territory also selected new members for the board of education and the board of elections.
Oswin A. Sewer was the only candidate for the board of education’s at-large seat and received 4,759 votes.
In the St. Thomas/St. John district, Judy Gomez, Arah Lockhart, Nandi Sekou, and Debra Smith-Waltington are currently leading the race with 4,285, 3,151, 3,144, and 3,134 votes respectively.
In the St. Croix district, Terrence Joseph, Winona Hendricks, Mary Moorhead, and Martial Webster, Sr., fill the top four spots with 3,373, 2,583, 1,956, and 1,907 votes respectively.
For the St. Thomas/St. John board of election, Arturo Watlington, Jr., Alecia Wells, Lydia Hendricks, and Lawrence Boschulte are currently in position to be elected with 3,263, 2,386, 2,219, and 2,096 votes respectively.
In the St. Croix district Lilliana Belardo de O’Neal, Lisa Harris-Moorhead, Roland L. Moolenaar, and Glenn Webster lead with 2,965, 2,570, 1,730, and 1,716 votes respectively.
Full unofficial results are available on the Virgin Islands Elections website, www.vivote.gov.
