In a 6-4 vote Monday, the V.I. Board of Elections denied Sen. Brian Smith’s petition for a manual recount of primary election votes cast in the senator-at-large race. According to the still unofficial results, Smith (at 1,304) is more than 2,000 votes behind the top St. John candidate, Steven Payne, Sr., whose unofficial total stands at 3,385.
In his Aug. 7 letter to the board requesting the recount, Smith cited “irregularities” in the senator-at-large race and argued that the number of votes cast for Payne alone was more than the number of votes cast in total for the winning gubernatorial candidate, Albert Bryan, Jr.
Smith also questioned Payne’s “great” margin of victory and added Monday that it is unusual for a Senate hopeful to unseat an incumbent by such a large percentage.
The arguments got mixed reactions Monday. While some board members felt it necessary to apologize for how Smith’s letter was received by board chair Arturo Watlington, Jr. – who called Smith’s request “ridiculous and inconsistent with the section of law that deals with recounts” – others were clear when pointing out that there were a few among them that directly dealt with the ballots from the at-large race, and saw how the votes were counted.
“I am totally shocked that we have four members who voted in favor of this request, two of whom personally participated in the viewing and counting of Sen. Smith’s votes,” Watlington said after the meeting. “They said they were not sure about the accuracy of the count of the machines and that they have no clue about what happened to the ballots when they were counted, but it was Max (Schanfarber) and Harriet (Mercer) who helped participate in viewing and remaking ballots that showed Mr. Smith actually lost more votes as a result of the absentee count than he gained during election day voting.”
Schanfarber, Mercer and St. Croix member Jevon Williams joined the board in the last few months after the resignations of three previous board members. All three voted in favor Monday of Smith’s petition for a recount, along with St. Thomas-St. John board member Maurice Donovan.
Watlington added later that when board members offer conflicting perspectives, voter confidence in the system is eroded and, when that happens, it is understandable to have more recount requests coming in.
“It is depressing and disheartening,” he said. “These are the same people who physically fed the ballots into the machine, so they saw how people were actually voting.”
Another recount petition was filed by St. Croix Senate hopeful Nemmy Williams-Jackson, who is currently in ninth place in that district’s race. Watlington said that the board still has 10 mail-in absentee ballots to count, while St. Thomas-St. John has approximately 54, but neither set is expected to change any of the candidates’ results.
“There’s not enough votes outstanding to upset any of the results, including the senator-at-large and gubernatorial races,” Watlington said.
The board will deal with Williams-Jackson’s petition within the three day period required by law, he added.
Meanwhile, Watlington and others noted that every time they are required to meet to decide on a petition, it costs about $1,200, between paying each member and the official meeting stenographer, who transcribes the meeting minutes. While Watlington said that keeping matters between the districts instead of meeting as a unified board each time an issue needs to be voted on would have been beneficial, others added that the petition process underscores the board’s need for a bigger 2018-2019 budget. Currently, the recommended budget appropriation for the board is $77,000, which many said is too low and too restrictive since it is not given in lump sum.
