A member of the Board of Elections was ordered by her fellow members to apologize after a disruptive incident that took place at the site of early voting on Monday. The order arose from a vote taken at an emergency meeting of the elections board held on Tuesday afternoon.
But one board member described the meeting to address Monday’s alleged incident where Board Member Harriet Mercer disrupted a voting site as stressful, irregular and possibly illegal. The emergency session was held by way of live stream video. Some participants — including board members — struggled with connectivity lapses, while an executive session lasting close to 75 minutes kept the public from observing most of the proceedings.
In a series of votes taken Tuesday, a motion was passed directing Mercer to write a letter apologizing to Deputy Elections Supervisor Kevermay Douglas and Elections staff members who witnessed the incident. The apology is to be submitted within 48 hours, and if failing to do so, Mercer will be censured and barred from appearing at any place where balloting for the General Election takes place in 2024.
An amendment posed by Mercer was voted down; had it passed, it would have compelled the board to delay any votes until they could review a written communication submitted by the alleged offender and then to hear from Fawkes about her views on what took place.
Former Board Chairman Raymond Williams described the incident as prompting the demand for an apology without specificity. “There was a matter that Harriet was causing disruptions at the start of early voting to the point that it was scaring the voters and scaring the elections workers, and Kevermay had to call the police,” Williams said.
Monday’s incident had nothing to do with Fawkes, Williams said, so any report she could make to the board was unnecessary. “We have a responsibility to our community at large, so you can’t go on like that,” he said.
Early voting on St. Thomas and St. Croix takes place between Oct. 14 and Oct. 28; voters wishing to cast ballots in early voting on St. John can do so starting Oct. 21. Williams said the balloting is conducted by Elections System workers and election board members are supposed to serve only as observers.
Having police on site at voting events is a routine procedure. Attempts to reach V.I. Police Department Communications Director Glen Dratte about Monday’s police response at St. Thomas Election Systems headquarters did not receive a reply.
