The St. Thomas-St. John District Board of Elections will begin cancelling about 4,700 voter registrations this week. According to law, if a voter misses two consecutive elections, that voter’s registration is cancelled, and he or she must re-register to vote in any future elections.
Following each election, the Elections staff sifts through the voter books and pulls out the registrations to be cancelled. Notices are sent out urging those voters to apply for reinstatement if they do not want to be pulled from the voter rolls.
Many of the notices do not get to the voters because voters have moved without informing the Elections System, said St. Thomas-St. John District Board of Elections Chairwoman Alicia Wells. Board member Lawrence Boschulte said some voters list incorrect addresses on purpose to evade jury duty.
June 30 was the cut-off date for reinstatement, according to the notices that were sent out to voters. The next step is for board members to review each voter card to ensure the voter has missed two elections in a row, stamp it “cancelled” and sign off on the cancellation.
Although the deadline for reinstatement has passed, the board still will allow voters about to be cancelled to fill out the reinstatement form rather than having to re-register, Wells said.
The public can come into Elections to review the list of voters to be cancelled. The reinstatement form can be emailed or faxed to a voter and emailed or faxed back to Elections to prevent cancellation.
Once a voter registration has been cancelled, however, the person must register to vote all over again. There is no cost to register to vote or receive a voter identification card. A replacement voter identification card is $25. According to the V.I. code, the board does not have a time period to finish the cancellations.
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