On a vote of 10-1, the Anchorage Assembly changed the rules for how campaigns can monitor the vote-counting process of the local mail-in-only elections.
Among the changes are limits to how many election observers a campaign can have in the building.
The changes came about after Mayor Dave Bronson’s campaign had a vigorous program of observers watching the workings of the Elections Office, run by the Municipal Clerk. They recorded much of the proceedings, which are difficult to observe from the security cameras that are installed in the building.
Clerk Barbara Jones, considered by many conservatives to be partisan, was unhappy and argumentative with the Bronson campaign for its election-watching activities in April and May.
But the new rules are not as onerous as the ones the Clerk had proposed earlier this year. Gone is the requirement that campaigns must tell the Clerk who the observers will be 22 days prior to the beginning the counting process.
Among the revisions to the original proposal, the Assembly chose to not ban recording devices in Election counting rooms, but ruled that the devices cannot be used in areas where confidential information may be captured by the devices.
Instead, observers will be able to record in undefined “designated areas,” leaving that decision about what that means up to the Clerk.
Without a vote of the people, the Assembly in 2017 voted to move the city to the mail-in election that has brought with it a significant amount of public mistrust in the election system. There were many irregularities documented during the last municipal election, including having a fire alarm go off during counting, requiring the clearing of the building, and having the attorney on contract to the Election Office also maintaining a simultaneous contract with a company that sells Dominion Voting Systems, the ballot tabulating equipment provider.
Voting against the changes were Chugiak/Eagle River Assemblywoman Jamie Allard.
