With only weeks to go ahead of the November 8 General Election in the United States Virgin Islands, the Election System of the USVI has reported encouraging participation of electors in the early voting process.
According to recent reports, over 3581 electors had already cast their ballots as of Sunday, October 16 – a figure which Elections Supervisor Caroline Fawkes anticipates will rise significantly as early voting continues through October 31.
Statistics show that St Thomas is currently leading in the voting figures with 1,798 votes, followed closely by St Croix with 1,660.
This election pits Incumbent Governor Albert Bryan and his running mate Lt. Governor Tregenza Roach against Territorial Senator duo Kurt Vialet and running mate Janelle Sarauw, perennial candidate Stephen Frett and running mate Gregory Miller Jr., and prison inmate advocate Ronald Pickard and running mate Elroy Turnbull.
In the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary, held in early August, the Bryan-Roach administration was challenged by Kent Bernier and his running mate Oakland Benta.
This election ended in favour of Bryan, in what some would consider a landslide lead of just under 2000 votes. (Unofficial results indicate Bryan with 4,016 votes won the nomination over Bernier who received 2,146 votes).
VI Tech Stack and UVI poll recently predicted a 22.8 point lead for Bryan and Roach over their closest challengers Vialet and Sarauw. The prediction was a result of a poll in which 48.7% of participants were in favour of Bryan-Roach and 25.9% were in favour of Vialet-Sarauw. 23% of voters were undecided.
Some believe that this prediction could hold some merit to determining the outcome of the election as the entity has been known to be fairly accurate, having currently predicted the outcome of the 2018 General Election.