Early primary voting started Tuesday, seven months after a court ruling threw party elections into doubt.
In a change from previous elections, political parties will be responsible for conducting their own elections of officers, said Elections Supervisor Caroline Fawkes.
“They do that themselves. We had a meeting yesterday because they were asking for equipment and space to conduct it,” Fawkes said. “I denied that request because it’s really on them.”
The Virgin Islands Election System would, however, lend political parties privacy booths and voting boxes if needed, she said.
In January, District Court Chief Judge Robert Molloy ruled eight sections of the V.I. Code governing primary elections were unconstitutional. Fawkes told the Legislature a normal primary election would be impossible without some change. The Board of Elections scrambled and, in an emergency meeting at the end of May, worked out a plan to exclude intra-party offices from the ballot but keep the names of people running for public office.
The only difference voters will find from previous primary elections, where political party members choose their candidates for the general election, will be the absence of names for chairperson and other party posts, Fawkes said.
“The public offices are legislative, the Board of Education, and the Board of Elections. That’s all that’s on this ballot in the primary. The delegate and senator-at-large were uncontested so they go straight to the November general election,” she said.
By law, party primaries can be conducted any time between January and Aug. 31 of an election year, Fawkes said. Early voting ends July 23.
“Whatever they come up with has to be ready for the November general election,” she said.
Although a countdown at the top of the Election System’s website ticks away the seconds before open primary election voting starts Aug. 3, Fawkes said she was unfazed.
“Transparent, accessible, secure — that’s our motto,” said Fawkes, a retired Virgin Islands National Guard colonel. “I’m a pilot and pilots know how to have a steady hand.”
Fawkes, a Crucian with 22 years in the military, was responsible for flying U.S. senators, suspected terrorists, and anyone in between to and from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from 2010 to January 2012.
“Any congressperson or anybody that wanted to go visit the detainees had to go through my office. I was the director of operations,” she said. “This job is easy compared to what I’ve been through.”
The U.S. Virgin Islands had 30,138 registered voters as of July 12, according to the Elections website. St. Croix had 14,999 registered voters, St. Thomas had 13,986, and St. John 1,153. The territory has three recognized political parties: the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands, the Republican Party of the Virgin Islands, and the Independent Citizens Movement of the Virgin Islands.
