On January 8, 2015, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court issued a 33-page opinion in Hansen v O’Reilly, 2014-0085. The case involves a write-in candidate for the Virgin Islands Senate in the November 4, 2014 election. Incumbent Senator Alicia “Chucky” Hansen, an independent candidate, had been removed from the ballot because an earlier decision of the Virgin Islands Supreme Court ruled that she is not eligible to run. Therefore, she filed as a write-in candidate.
The canvass of votes showed that she was not re-elected. She then asked for a recount, but the lower territorial court ruled that she is not a “candidate”, even though the Virgin Islands allows write-in votes and does not even require write-in candidates to file a write-in declaration of candidacy. Therefore, the lower court felt she had no right to request a recount.
The Virgin Islands Supreme Court reversed that finding, and said that write-in candidates are bona fide candidates. Page 17 says that write-ins for bona fide candidates must be counted, which is a helpful conclusion, although it is just dicta in this case, because Hansen’s write-ins had been counted. The Supreme Court noted that she actually campaigned, and voluntarily notified the Board of Elections of her write-in candidacy, even though there is no requirement that write-in candidates file any paperwork.
Unfortunately for Hansen, the Supreme Court still ruled that she is not entitled to a recount. It used a technicality to find that she is not entitled to a recount. The Board of Elections never formally granted her request for a recount. Instead, it did start to recount her votes, but was ordered to stop the recount, because the recount had never been formally authorized by the Board. The Supreme Court said Hansen should have sued the Board over its failure to formally authorize her recount. Of course, Hansen’s response to that is that it would be ridiculous to sue the Board when the Board was proceeding to recount her votes. Hansen says the Virgin Islands Supreme Court’s decision on that part of the case is so unfair, that she will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule the Virgin Islands Supreme Court.