Comments on: Anchorage’s April 3 election: Some answers, many more questions

By: Anchorage Election Woes Continue; the Ball is Now in the Assembly’s Court. | Alaska Commons

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:34:26 +0000

[...] Bent Alaska readers already are aware, on February 17th, Minnery sent out an email to the “Protect Your Rights” group (also sent to [...]

By: Shea

Shea — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 06:24:12 +0000

I find it incredibly suspicious that they decided to distribute fewer ballots to each precinct this year than any any year prior. Their lame excuse was they didn’t want to make election workers carry the boxes back again if they weren’t used. YET, isn’t it interesting that the more conservative districts didn’t get shorted or run out of ballots. This isn’t the first fraudulent election this town (and state) has had. It is time to raise hell until they fix the problem.

By: Mel Green

Mel Green — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:28:55 +0000

I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but it’s completely untrue that questioned ballots don’t get counted “unless the vote is close.” Questioned ballots get counted if the Election Commission determines that the person was qualified to vote in the election. If the person isn’t qualified (not registered; registered but not in the Municipality; etc.), then that person’s vote is not counted. (As will happen a lot in this election, looks like, since a lot of questioned ballots seemed to have come from people who were registered to vote in localities outside the Muni.

Technically, “early votes” in Muni elections are really “absentee in person” ballots and are similar to “questioned” because the the person’s eligibility to vote is verified after the voter is issued a ballot, so their voted ballot is put inside an absentee voting envelope before it’s put in the ballot box. If their eligibility to vote had been first verified so that it didn’t have to be put in an envelope, that would be a true “early vote.” But either way, the votes of all eligible voters are counted.

By: Carolyn Clift

Carolyn Clift — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:09:54 +0000

There’s another problem that has not been mentioned: One Anchorage staff themselves were “early voters”— that’s means they voted “out of precinct” and had questioned ballots, too. I think there was a lot of misinformation floating around. Everybody needs to vote in their own precinct on election day, if possible, because questioned ballots don’t even get counted unless the vote is close.

By: Mary B

Mary B — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 22:31:15 +0000

I can understand that! Thank you again for doing it. As one who’s upset and has registered my frustration, I’m glad there are folks like you out there to help as well.

By: Mel Green

Mel Green — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:17:35 +0000

I’m one blogger with a fulltime job, who just pulled two all-nighters within a week… can’t sustain it. Need to pressure the mainstream press to get on it. Or hope that one of the good folks at The Mudflats can. Or… better yet… that we get the full independent investigation that this problematic election deserves. As do all us voters.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:09:49 +0000

Bleg- a post about the contract and supporting docs and Assembly deliberation surrounding the hiring of ESS. Does ESS have other contracts with MOA? Was there a RFP?

By: Mel Green

Mel Green — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:50:24 +0000

Thanks. I was obviously very sleepy. Still am.

By: Mary B

Mary B — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:42:32 +0000

Mel,

Thank you for this interesting article.

There’s a typo in your post that I think you’ll want to fix really quickly as it’s in the email address for complaints to the Clerk’s office. I’m certain it should be election2012@muni.org

I hope an independent investigator is appointed and gets to the bottom of this. It’s not about the outcome (although I wish it was different). It’s about what seems to be the corruption of the system by a minority that, in this case likely affected the outcome.

Stay on this course please!

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:22:02 +0000

My neighbor has been a poll worker for over a decade. She said at their training two weeks before the election, they were told that less ballots than normal would be distributed. No one asked any questions. My neighbor thought that Prop 5 would drive a higher than expected vote. She’s kicking herself now that she thought about asking a question but didn’t. No one asked what to do if they run low or run out.

My neighbor’s experience proves this was premeditated. They PLANNED on distributing less ballots than normal.