With primary election funding held up and invoices for ballot printing still outstanding, Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes announced Thursday that she has decided to postpone early voting, again, until July 18.
Currently, the outstanding invoice to Elections Systems & Software (ES&S), the independent contractor that has been producing the territory’s election ballots for years, is more than $7,000. At Thursday’s meeting of the V.I. Elections Board, Fawkes said the payment has gotten the approvals it needs, and the system is awaiting a purchase order and payment by the Department of Finance.
Fawkes said the Office of Management and Budget as of Wednesday still had not received any primary election funding. The system’s fourth quarter General Fund allotment has come in, however, and Fawkes said that’s how she will be paying for ballots in the meantime. However, the cost to rush the ballots is going to be approximately $4,000, bumping the invoice up to $11,000, she added.
During a heated back and forth with member Raymond Williams, who touted the longstanding relationship between the territory and ES&S, Fawkes said officials from the company have made it clear that a history of delayed payments has forced ES&S to take a hard line approach this time. The company won’t print and ship the early voting ballots until payment is made, Fawkes said.
“A lot of vendors are saying the same thing because of the same issues,” she added.
Williams also expressed his “disappointment,” saying that he would not “support any more postponement” of the early voting schedule. In response, Fawkes also detailed logistical delays in getting the ballots, which were drafted by June 7, and approved by the board, which met on June 18.
Fawkes stressed that absentee voting is still a viable option for residents. The early voting period will run from July 18 through July 25.
Fawkes also said Thursday that Elections will not be able to use Addelita Cancryn Junior High School as a polling site because it has been condemned. While some board members contended that the campus, located on the western end of St. Thomas, is currently being used, Education spokesperson Keva Muller confirmed that the campus is shut down and closed off. The department is only using the auditorium as storage space because its general warehouse was destroyed in 2017’s hurricanes, she said.
Additionally the cafeteria, where voting is usually held, is being used for relief work, Muller said.
The University of the Virgin Islands Sports and Fitness Center was identified in previous elections board meetings as an alternate site for Cancryn voters.
