ST. CROIX — A group of voters allege a violation of a 61-year-old election law requiring ballot boxes at the polls, voicing their objections at two voting centers during Tuesday’s general election that resulted in police intervention while calling for the supervisor of elections to follow the law.
Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes said the 1963 law has been outdated since the implementation of electronic voting machines in 1986, adding that ballot boxes in voting centers became obsolete at that time.
Fawkes emphasized the need for the Legislature to amend the antiquated law while clarifying the DS200 ballot scanner and vote tabulator that replaced hand counting includes an internal ballot box. She said she pointed out numerous election laws needed clarification when she became supervisor of elections in 2013.
“They were antiquated and they’re not appropriate to the systems that we have,” Fawkes said. “But again, from 1986 the boxes in the voting centers has been put away with.”
Some voters called out Fawkes during Tuesday’s general election for not following the law after learning no ballot box was available in the voting center at St. Croix Central High School.
Cleopatra Peter, a chiropractor who was subsequently elected to the Board of Elections after the results were tabulated using the electronic machines, said she learned there was no ballot box available at the voting center upon filling out a paper ballot. She said Fawkes is in violation of the VI Code in Title 18, Section 517.
“She’s violating my rights, my human rights, my civil rights,” Peter said from the voting center. “She’s violating the people of the Virgin Islands. That is what she’s doing, and we no longer going to sit by and allow people like Caroline Fawkes to violate our law.”
After Peter and other voters learned from CHS elections staff that they had to use the DS200 ballot scanner because there was no ballot box, they discussed their intent to file a complaint with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sergeant Kirk Fieulleteau, a member of the Virgin Islands Police Department who serves as commander for general elections operations, helped resolve the situation at CHS that concluded without any confrontation.
Oakland Benta, a former senator who served one term in the 33rd Legislature and finished in 10th place after running for a Senate seat in Tuesday’s general election, said about eight voters at CHS wanted to submit their paper ballots into a ballot box. He said the election officials at the voting center documented in writing that the voters were instructed to submit their ballots into the DS200 ballot scanner, a component he said was necessary before filing a complaint. The voters then submitted their ballots into the machine as required.
Peter said she decided to run for a seat on the Board of Elections to be the change that she wants to see within the Elections System of the Virgin Islands.
“I want to see a free and fair election here in the Virgin Islands, and that is why I decide to be a candidate as a member for the Board of Elections,” she said. “I think that’s one of the most important seats in this election, and that’s why I came in.”
Mary Moorhead, another voter who requested to place her paper ballot in a ballot box in accordance with the 61-year-old law while attempting to vote at Claude O. Markoe Elementary School, was handcuffed and removed by police before being released without arrest, according to Fieulleteau.
After leaving the voting center, Moorhead said she filed complaints with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office because elections officials did not follow the law as it pertains to providing ballot boxes. She said she ended up visiting the voting center at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal School to vote using the electronic scanner after speaking to the representatives from the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“They didn’t see that I would in any other way have a vote registered if I didn’t do it that way,” she said.
Despite following the advice, Moorhead, who was reelected to the Board of Education for a third term on Tuesday after unsuccessful bids in 2020 and 2022, said her goal is to provide access for paper ballots and manual calculation.
“My purpose for voting paper ballot is because I want to have no interaction with machines whatsoever when I vote,” she said. “I don't have any trust or confidence in machines.”
Fawkes said there is no way for a voter to fill out a paper ballot and place it in a ballot box without using a machine. She said offering the option would be going backward instead of forward with technology.
“And we got the technology along with all the states and territories,” Fawkes said. “No state or territory does hand counting.”
