Election audit closely matches primary count; general ballots approved

A post-primary audit in both Virgin Islands election districts found that hand-counted totals either matched the original results or differed by no more than one or two points. Election officials attributed the small differences to human recording errors or blank sections.

For the audit, participants selected machines, checked security seals, separated activated-card and handwritten ballots, compared totals with original tape records and then ran the ballots through certified machines that had not been used in the primary.

Officials said improperly completed hand-marked ballots remain a voter-education concern. Examples included circling or crossing an oval instead of filling it in and writing a candidate's name without marking the corresponding write-in oval.

The Board of Elections approved draft general-election ballots for both districts in their current form. Several candidate cases remain unresolved, however, and Elections Supervisor Caroline Fawkes said a successful court challenge could require another print run, as occurred in 2014 and 2020.