“Chucky” Hansen’s Only Path To Victory Is Through Write-In

The Board of Elections St. Croix District held an emergency meeting on Monday to rectify small, but pertinent issues affecting the November 4 General Election ballot. And while a lot was accomplished, beleaguered senator Alicia “Chucky” Hansen’s name was hardly mentioned.

Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes said that in her understanding, the Governor’s pardoning of Sen. Hansen was effective moving forward and that it has no effect on the Supreme Court’s decision to bar the embattled senator from the November 4 General Election ballot. Fawkes said the only way Hansen could reappear on the ballot was if the High Court issued a new ruling.

The meeting, called to order around 10 a.m. by Board of Elections Chairman for the St. Croix District, Adelbert Bryan–whom the VI Consortium recently interviewed, went on without much commotion and corrections were made to the ballot.

“To be compliant with the deadline, we have to complete this situation here this morning,” Bryan explained.

In last week’s interview with the the VI Consortium, Bryan said only the Court’s order matters when it comes to keeping Hansen off the General Election ballot, and unless Fawkes wished to be held in contempt of court, the senator’s name would remain off the ballot.

“The court order is the instruction that must be complied with. Nobody can violate the court order, unless they have contempt of order to show cause; so therefore, only if Mrs. Fawkes intend to violate the court order, then she has a problem to go to court to explain to the court why,” Bryan said.

Fixes

One significant change made to the November 4 ballot sees that the “ICM” abbreviation will no longer appear on the ballot; instead, it will be replaced with the party’s full name–Independent Citizens Movement. Other changes included correcting minor grammatical errors and ensuring Board of Elections candidate Rupert Ross’ name appeared on the ballot. A previous version inadvertently omitted his name.

Hansen’s Fortitude

Barring a new ruling from the Supreme Court, the only way Hansen could be elected as a senator in the 31st Legislature is if she decides to mount a write-in campaign. It is something that must be taken into consideration according to Fawkes, who said the Board needs to iron out the rules that would govern her write-in effort, most importantly, acceptable spelling variations of the candidate’s name.