ST. CROIX — John Yob, state chair of the Republican Party in the Virgin Islands, has written a letter to Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes seeking clarification on the election process moving forward considering a federal court ruling that found 10 provisions of the territory’s elections laws unconstitutional, thereby barring the Elections System of the Virgin Islands from conducting primary elections.
Yob raised a concern the Republican Party has that voters would be disenfranchised if no primary election is conducted by the Elections System and candidates nominated through alternative, political party-run processes are not placed on the general election ballot as the lawful and legitimate nominees for their political party, according to the letter dated May 14.
The Elections System is not yet able to determine whether the territory’s political parties will need to conduct their own primary elections ahead of the general election because the System will not know how many aspirants are running for senator and delegate to Congress until the fast-approaching filing deadline at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Fawkes said.
“We can’t tell now because people haven’t filed,” she said. “Aspirants that pick up nomination packages; not everyone files them, so we don’t know at this point whether there’s a primary needed in none of the categories until after the 21st.”
A primary is only required for a political party if more than seven candidates run for Senate, or more than one run for delegate to Congress, Fawkes said.
“If the party doesn’t have over that amount, then there’s no need for a primary,” she said.
Ronald Pickard, a Republican who is running for delegate to Congress in the St. Croix District, filed his nomination papers today. He is the only Republican from St. Croix who has filed to run for that office so far. As the filing deadline approaches, two other Republicans from the St. Thomas/St. John District — Lois Hedrington and Collister Fahie — have picked up nomination papers to run for delegate to Congress but not yet filed them.
Fawkes acknowledged that the Republican Party in the Virgin Islands sent her a letter seeking clarification on the process moving forward.
“They sent us a letter and we’re drafting a response to get back to them by later this afternoon, or weekend, or whenever, but we can’t tell if there’s a primary required or not at this point,” she said.
Yob, in his letter to Fawkes, is seeking confirmation that candidates nominated by the Republican Party in the Virgin Islands through its own party-run process will appear on the general election ballot as if they had been nominated through the customary primary election. He requested a response by 6 p.m. today to ensure that any necessary actions can be taken before Tuesday’s filing deadline. Fawkes said she was not sure if she would meet the deadline.
“We are working on the response, and I’ll get it to him when I can,” she said. “But, again, we can’t tell how many people are running until after the 21st, so responding to him today would be a general letter because I can’t tell how many persons have filed.”
While the VIGOP is preparing to hold its own party-run primary, the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Saturday to determine how it will proceed.
“Saturday is our regular-scheduled territorial committee meeting where all of the members will have the opportunity to vote on the decision that is going to be made by the party,” Democratic State Chair Stedmann Hodge Jr. said.
Fawkes said the Elections System must process every nomination petition it receives at this time.
“There’s only one nomination period, so we’ve got independents that are in there, so it’s not only party persons that we are dealing with,” she said.
Fawkes told senators during a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday that amendments to laws found unconstitutional by District Court Chief Judge Robert Molloy on January 10 are necessary to allow the Office of the Supervisor of Elections to be able to conduct primary elections. Molloy’s ruling was in response to a civil lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee and the VIGOP that challenged the constitutionality of several provisions of the Virgin Islands Code relating to internal party governance.
READ MORE: “ESVI: Government unable to conduct primary elections without changes to unconstitutional laws.”
Although senators expressed a need to address the unconstitutional elections laws, it is unknown whether the lawmaking body will approve any amendments.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” Fawkes said. “I don’t know what the Legislature’s gonna do. I don’t know what the political parties are gonna do.”
If the law isn’t amended and stands as is with the Elections System being barred from holding primaries, and a primary election is required based on the number of candidates from a political party running for Senate or delegate to Congress, Fawkes said letters would be sent in a timely manner to aspirants who filed nomination petitions with the System to inform them that their petitions are null and void.
“If the packages are not gonna go through our process, I’ll be sending a letter stating your package is null and void, and then you’ll go through the political-party process,” she said. “Whatever the political party does submit to us for November, then that’s what we’ll deal with for the general election, but again, it’s fluid right now. I can’t predict either way. The 21st is when I will know and you the public will know how many folks are running, and then they’ll decide whether they need to do a primary or not.”
Fawkes said there is no timeline by which the political parties must inform ESVI of the election process they plan on using if primaries are required.
“We can’t tell them anything, that’s what they went to court to do — to run their own business,” she said. “The only thing that we will say is it must be done before August, so that’s what I’m saying; they have time. We need things done before August because that’s the timeline that’s used, and it’s across the states. Most people have their primaries in August. That gives us time to get ready for the general election ballot.”
