ST. CROIX — Lawrence Boschulte resigned from the Virgin Islands Board of Elections to pursue a seat in the Legislature after an election official determined a local law barred him from remaining on the board while running for Senate.
Boschulte picked up a nomination petition on May 14 to run for Senate in the St. Thomas/St. John District as a Democrat. The Office of the Supervisor of Elections initially qualified him as a Democratic candidate for Senate, according to the list of qualified Democratic candidates for public offices Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes emailed to Democratic State Chair Carol Burke on Monday. On Tuesday, the Democratic Party sent a notice to Fawkes certifying Boschulte to run for Senate in the Democratic primary election.
Despite initially qualifying Boschulte, Fawkes informed WTJX on Wednesday that she disqualified him because of his position on the Board of Elections.
“He must resign from the board for me to qualify him,” Fawkes wrote in a text message to WTJX.
Fawkes subsequently told WTJX on Wednesday evening that she received Boschulte’s resignation letter and qualified him to run as a candidate in the Democratic primary election.
Boschulte’s resignation letter was dated May 27, effective that day.
The law that restricts Board of Elections members from seeking any other public office unless they resign from the board is codified in Title 18, Chapter 1, Section 2 of the Virgin Islands Code. The pertinent part of the law states, “No member of a Board of Elections may be a candidate for any other public office during the term for which the member was elected. Any member of a Board of Election must resign his position on the board as a condition of seeking any other public office.”
Boschulte told WTJX last Friday he disagreed with the law but would follow it. He said, however, he did not want to submit his letter of resignation until after receiving confirmation from the Elections System of the Virgin Islands that he needed to resign.
“Let’s say I resign early and then I’m told, ‘you don’t have the correct names,’ then I just wasted my time,” he said. “So, I have to be told by the supervisor my choices, and then I move forward from there.”
Boschulte previously served on the Board of Elections for four terms from 2001 to 2017. He was elected to the board in 2024 and served as vice chair. During a board meeting on April 22, a motion that would have effectively removed him as vice chair failed on a 2-6 vote.
Boschulte previously ran unsuccessfully for the Legislature in 2014 as a Republican, in the 2020 Democratic primary, and in the 2022 general election as a Democrat. He also served for 11 months as St. Thomas administrator during the administration of former Governor Kenneth Mapp.
As for who would replace Boschulte on the board, Title 18, Section 41 (f) of the Virgin Islands Code states, “Whenever a vacancy occurs, the Board of Elections shall certify within thirty (30) days thereafter, the candidate who received the next highest vote count in the immediately preceding election. The individual must be a member of the same political party in which the vacancy occurred. The person appointed shall serve for the remainder of the term; provided, however, whenever a vacancy occurs and the candidate who received the next highest vote count either is not in the same political party as the person who vacated the position, or the person who vacated the position is not affiliated with any political party, then the board shall certify the candidate who received the next highest vote count.”
The next Virgin Islands Board of Elections meeting will be in person at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 3 at the Elections System’s conference room in St. Thomas to review fiscal matters and continue 2026 election planning.
