USVI 2026 Primary: Certified Results and What Comes Next
Updated: Aug 19
Update — the results are now official. The Elections System of the Virgin Islands certified the 2026 primary on August 17, 2026. The numbers below are the certified final results. Nothing changed from the last unofficial count — the certification confirmed it.
Polls closed August 1. The Elections System released the territorial summary at 8:46 PM, and within an hour people were sharing screenshots of a document almost nobody could read on a phone.
That's the problem I want to solve here. Below is what the certified numbers actually say, what the primary settled, and who you will see on the ballot November 3.
These are the official, certified results, certified August 17, 2026. The primary is settled. The next decisions happen at the November 3 general election.
The short version
10,551 ballots, 50.43% turnout. These are the certified final results.
Territory-wide winners: Janelle Sarauw for the Delegate nomination, and the Plaskett/Potter ticket for Governor.
Six votes. That's the certified margin in the last St. Thomas/St. John Legislature seat — the closest race on the board.
Coming November 3: 69 candidates across nine contests and 21 seats, including a five-way governor race.
What the turnout numbers show
10,551 ballots were cast territory-wide. That is 50.43 percent turnout. 18 ballots came back blank.
Just over half the registered voters in the Virgin Islands decided who would carry the Democratic line into November. In a territory this size, a slim majority means individual precincts and individual voters carry real weight — as a couple of these races make plain.
Who won the Democratic nominations
The count is certified, so these are the nominees. Two territory-wide races were on the ballot:
Delegate to Congress: Janelle K. Sarauw won the nomination with 5,167 votes
Governor and Lt. Governor: Stacey E. Plaskett and Milton E. Potter won the nomination with 4,742 votes
The governor race was closer than that territorial number suggests. Plaskett and Potter built their win on St. Croix, where they took 2,845 votes to Roach's 1,289. On St. Thomas and St. John, Tregenza Roach and Novelle Francis actually finished first — but by just 26 votes, 1,923 to 1,897. Plaskett carried the territory by carrying St. Croix.
Seven candidates won in each Legislature district. On St. Croix: Kurt Vialet, Kenneth Gittens, Clifford A. Joseph, Nemmy Williams-Jackson, Lisa J. Charles, Hubert L. Frederick and Jose Gonzalez. On St. Thomas and St. John: Avery L. Lewis, Marvin A. Blyden, Carla J. Joseph, Rudel A. Hodge Jr., Shenelle Francis, Ray Fonseca and Joel S. Browne Connors.
In Board of Education, Terrence T. Joseph and Winona A. Hendricks won on St. Croix, and Judy M. Gomez and Arah C. Lockhart won on St. Thomas and St. John. In the St. Thomas and St. John Board of Elections race, Kevin A. Rodriguez and Barbara A. Petersen took the two seats.
The seat decided by six votes
The seventh Legislature seat on St. Thomas and St. John came down to six votes, and the certified count holds it there. Browne Connors finished with 1,490. Peter Bailey finished with 1,484.
Six votes — confirmed through the absentee and provisional canvass and into certification.
Board of Elections was close too. Petersen took the second seat by 83 votes over Atanya Springette, and Rodriguez edged Petersen for first by only four.
Those are the tightest margins on the certified board.
How the neighborhoods voted
The precinct-by-precinct numbers add texture the territory-wide totals hide.
Turnout wasn't even. The West End precinct on St. Thomas led the whole territory at 55 percent — well above the 50.4 percent territorial figure — while a few precincts on both islands came in under 44 percent.
The governor race split St. Thomas and St. John almost neighborhood by neighborhood. Roach and Francis carried most of the St. Thomas town precincts — Charlotte Amalie, Altona, the West End, Annas Retreat. But St. John broke the other way: Plaskett and Potter took Cruz Bay and ran up a lopsided margin in Coral Bay, and they also carried North Look on St. Thomas. That St. John strength is part of what kept the district margin down to 26 votes.
The six-vote Legislature race had its own map, too. Peter Bailey actually outpolled Joel Browne Connors in Annas Retreat, his strongest precinct — but Browne Connors made up the difference in Charlotte Amalie and the West End, and that was the ballgame.
What the primary did not decide
This was a Democratic primary. Every candidate on it filed as a Democrat — all 17 in St. Croix, all 23 in St. Thomas and St. John.
That means the primary picked one party's nominees. It did not pick the field.
The November 3 general election ballot carries 69 candidates across nine contests and 21 seats. Independents, Republicans and the Independent Citizens Movement never appeared in this primary because they did not need to. They filed straight for the general.
A few things that surprised people:
Governor is a five-way race. Plaskett and Potter face four independent tickets. If no ticket reaches a majority, a runoff follows on November 17.
Delegate to Congress is a two-way race. Sarauw faces independent Shelley A. H. Moorhead.
The Legislature races are crowded. St. Croix has 24 candidates for seven seats. St. Thomas and St. John has 20 for seven.
The At-Large seat never had a primary. Only one Democrat filed, so Angel Bolques Jr. and independent Hadiya Sewer go straight to November.
Candidates who fell short in the primary are off the Democratic line. None filed an independent backup, so a write-in would be the only path remaining.
Key dates ahead
Here is what is left on the official Elections System calendar, and how to be ready for November:
Monday, August 3: The Board of Elections canvassed the absentee ballots in both districts.
Tuesday, August 17: The Elections System certified the primary. These numbers are now official and final.
Sunday, October 4: Last day to register to vote in the general election.
October 16–31: Early voting for the general election.
Tuesday, November 3: General Election.
Tuesday, November 17: Governor run-off, if no ticket wins a majority on November 3.
Why I built the graphics
I took the official results report and the official candidate listings and rebuilt them as readable images. One card per contest, sorted by district, plus a single graphic with everything on it.
That is the work: taking something accurate but unusable and making it something a person will actually stop and read.
It applies well beyond election night. Most businesses are sitting on information their customers would care about — pricing, service comparisons, results, timelines — trapped in a format nobody engages with. A PDF that takes three pinches to read is information you are not really sharing.
If your business has something worth communicating and it is not landing, that is usually a design problem, not a content problem.
Before you share anything
Check the date and time stamp on any results graphic before you pass it along. Mine shows the source and the date it was made. If a graphic does not tell you when it was made, you have no idea what you are sharing.
These results are certified and final, from the Elections System of the Virgin Islands, certified August 17, 2026. You can follow the official reports yourself at vivote.gov.
About Flo Dynasty
Flo Dynasty is a Virgin Islands creative studio based on St. Thomas. I build and manage websites, produce video and event media, and design graphics like the ones in this post — the kind that take something people would usually scroll past and make them stop. Website design, branding, videography, video editing, graphic design, digital marketing: the through-line is always the same, making your information worth paying attention to.
I post updates like this to my WhatsApp channel first. Join it at flodynasty.com/whatsapp.
Need something complicated made clear for your business? Book a consultation.
Just Go with the Flo!
Official certified results, Elections System of the Virgin Islands, certified August 17, 2026. Candidate listings per the Elections System of the Virgin Islands, official June 2026 filing. Shared for informational purposes only. Flo Dynasty is not affiliated with the Elections System of the Virgin Islands.
Certified governor island split (official, Aug 17): St. Croix — Plaskett 2,845, Roach 1,289, Frett-Gregory 843. St. Thomas/St. John — Roach 1,923, Plaskett 1,897, Frett-Gregory 1,258 (Roach's island win: 26 votes). The two provisional ballots both fell in St. Thomas/St. John. Certified totals matched the Aug 11 unofficial count exactly.
It's striking to see the impact of every single vote, especially in that 6-vote difference for the St. Thomas/St. John Legislature seat – truly a nail-biter. Your emphasis on transforming dense official reports into readable graphics is so vital; it turns a frustrating deciphering task into an accessible update, making it as straightforward to grasp as the instructions for any new sz games.