Immediately after three newly elected members of the St. Croix Board of Elections were sworn into office Friday, the new board met for the first time and the three new members, joined by incumbent member former Sen. Adelbert Bryan, voted to install Bryan as its new chairman.
Shortly after the meeting convened in the V.I. Election System offices in Sunny Isles, incumbent member Raymond Williams nominated Lisa Harris-Moorhead for chair. Newly elected member Roland Moolenaar then nominated Bryan for the post.
Moolenaar, Bryan, and two other newly elected members: former Sen. Lilliana Belardo de O’Neal, and Glenn Webster voted for Bryan. Incumbent members Rupert Ross, Lisa Harris-Moorhead and Raymond Williams voted nay.
Bryan then nominated O’Neal for the post of vice chair. O’Neal was approved by the same four-to-three vote as Bryan.
Moolenaar nominated Webster for the post of board secretary. Harris-Moorhead seconded the motion and Webster was approved by a unanimous, seven to zero vote.
Bryan said he planned to ensure the new board would "follow all the rules and regulations and have Title 18 as our bible," referring to the section of the V.I. Code that establishes the legal framework for the elections system.
"I am hoping we can move on from here. We have a lot of work to do," Bryan said.
Harris-Moorhead moved that the next meeting be held Feb. 6 at 9:30 a.m., saying that the established practice has been to meet the first Wednesday of each month, and holding it at that time and date would continue that practice established by precedent.
The board approved the measure by a six to zero vote, with Ross abstaining. Ross said he abstained because he wants an outstanding payment made of roughly $60,000 to attorney Scot McChain, on behalf of the board, for representing several board members in a lawsuit over a failed recall election attempt. He said he would boycott the meeting if the payment had not been made by that time.
In 2012, V.I. Action Group gathered petitions to try to force a recall election against six members of the St. Croix Board of Elections – all members but Bryan – because the board did not disqualify Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen from running for office. The group sued the board and the election system after the board determined V.I. Action Group had not collected a sufficient number of signatures. V.I. Action Group lost the suit, as well as a lawsuit filed to try to directly disqualify Hansen.
The board engaged McChain to defend itself in the suit, but has not been able to pay him, Ross said. During budget hearings last fall, Ross asked the V.I. Legislature for a supplemental appropriation to make the payment. Ross suggested the funding had been approved. Deputy Superintendent of Elections James Weber II said he would seek the funding if he could be shown the legislative act authorizing the appropriation.
The Election System has a 2013 budget appropriation of $1.3 million. The budget specifies $385,778 for the category "professional services," – an increase of $215,000 from the previous year, but does not specify what the increase is for.
Bryan adjourned the meeting moments later and members went to Gertrude’s Restaurant for a farewell luncheon for several retiring board members and election staffers.
In a special meeting held Thursday, the outgoing board addressed a request from Superintendent of Elections John Abramson to have Weber dismissed from his position. The outgoing board voted to recommend to the Joint Board of Elections that it investigate Abramson’s allegations, and recommended the Joint Board dismiss Weber.
The Joint Board is composed of members of the territory’s two district boards of elections and must approve the hiring and firing of the superintendent and deputy superintendents.
The outgoing board voted to recommend dismissal with Ross, Harris-Moorhead, Carmen Golden and Ana Davila voting yea and Williams and Bryan voting nay. Member Dodson James was absent.
Two of those who voted for Weber’s dismissal: Golden and Davila, are no longer on the board.
Asked about the outgoing board’s actions Friday, Weber said he felt the action was "totally inappropriate," for an outgoing board, the day before a new board is sworn in. "Any action by the outgoing board is not binding on the new board, so what is the purpose?" Weber said.
Weber also said he has not been given any specific examples of poor performance, and felt that to be accused without any specifics was unfair. "However I am looking forward to working with the new board," Weber said.
When asked to comment on the vote and on Weber’s response, Ross said "that’s his opinion." He agreed the new board was not bound by the outgoing board’s action, but said the vote spoke for itself. Asked what the grounds for dismissing Weber were, Ross said "Poor performance. That’s all I’m going to say at this time."
Bryan said after Friday’s meeting that he had no interest in pursuing Weber’s dismissal. "I don’t see how you can make an accusation like that and not be there to let Weber respond," Bryan said.
Abramson was not present at Friday’s meeting.
Abramson previously tried to oust Deputy Superintendent Mabel Maduro as well. Maduro was suspended from work for 30 days. In December, the Joint Board voted to reinstate Maduro.
Bryan has also tried to have Abramson ousted from his position, also without success.
During his 2010 campaign for a seat on the part-time elections board, Bryan claimed the territory’s ’80s-vintage electronic voting machines can be manipulated and elections officials have been complicit in a conspiracy to rig elections. He brought two lawsuits making similar claims about the machines. Both were dismissed in highly critical, acerbic rulings.
"Even a cursory examination of the … arguments presented by (Bryan) demonstrate a startling absence of proof of facts," V.I. Superior Court Judge Julio Brady wrote, rejecting Bryan’s request for an injunction against the election system.
Over the course of the past two years, Bryan has argued vociferously that the territory’s voting machines are out of date and unreliable, pushing for the purchase of new machines that have a voter-verified paper trail. The Joint Board selected a company and a machine early in 2012 and the Legislature approved funding to purchase the machines in April and Gov. John deJongh Jr. signed the appropriation May 14.
On Aug. 30, 2012 Weber said the new machines were under contract but could not be purchased in time for the 2012 general election because the funding was frozen until the St. Thomas-St. John District Elections office becomes compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Weber said at the time that the machines would be purchased well before the 2014 election.
Asked Friday about the new machines, the ES&S Model DS200, Bryan said they would be a big improvement, and would scan paper ballots, allowing voters to see that their vote was registered correctly before they left the voting booth. The ballots would be collected in locked boxes, which could then be counted by hand if need be, Bryan said.
Weber interjected to ask Bryan to ensure that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission certified those specific machines before the purchase is finalized.
"They have to certify each type of machine, you know. I want to see a certification from EAC, not just the manufacturer," Weber said.
Asked when the machines might be purchased, Bryan would not speculate. Instead, he insisted the machines should have already been purchased and should have been used in the 2012 election, accusing Attorney General Vincent Frazer and others of intentionally delaying the process. Asked what the next steps toward securing the machines would be, Bryan again elaborated on his view that various officials purposefully delayed the process and prevented their purchase before the election.
At Bryan’s request, Weber produced the purchase contract with ES&S for the new machines. It was signed by members of the Joint Board of Elections on Oct. 30, and was approved by the Department of Property and Procurement Dec. 5. It sets a total price of $540,000 for all the new machines.
