In Anchorage municipal elections, conducted by mail-in ballots, there have long been reasons to be suspicious. In recent elections, observers have noted all kinds of irregularities and brought forward complaints about instances that concerned them, such as thumb drives being inserted into vote-counting machines without first being wiped clean.
Their complaints were so annoying to the leftist-dominated Anchorage Assembly that it has passed ordinances that put a chill on election observers, threatening them with subpoenas and criminal charges. The Assembly has even sicced the city’s Ombudsman on election observers.
The last municipal clerk — in charge of elections for nearly a quarter century — was Barbara Jones.
She retired in June and is now the volunteer coordinator for the Suzanne LaFrance campaign for mayor.
Jones, during her years as the chief and architect of the election process in Anchorage, ran elections in which LaFrance was a candidate for Assembly. Now, she’s LaFrance’s tie-in to the Anchorage Division of Elections. It is a huge advantage for the extremist candidate who is endorsed by the Alaska Democratic Party.
Critics have noted that Jones is the one who designed an election observer system that suppresses the ability of observers and adds a fear factor into anyone who might want to watch the ballots being counted.
In fact, one previous observer has wondered why Jones reported that her office sent out 201,000 ballots, but also said it sent out 199,000 ballots. Daniel Smith has a public records request that has languished for months with the municipality. He has asked for all communications between the municipal election office and the printer in Washington state. For some reason, the Clerk’s Office, which reports to the Assembly, won’t give those emails over to Smith, even though he has paid the $400 demanded of him for the request.
Smith has written, “The Anchorage Assembly gave us the universal vote-by-mail system out of the kindness of their hearts. There was no problem with the previous voting system. We did not vote for the change-over. The assembly simply decided to fix something that was not broken. “
This was the same Assembly to which Jones reported for 24 years.
LaFrance first ran in 2017, and again in 2020. She served six years, including two as Assembly chair, the person to whom Jones reported.
While it’s not illegal for Jones, now a private citizen, to work on a campaign, it does demonstrate the tough campaign ahead for Mayor Dave Bronson, who is once again faced with the Jones Factor — the person who designed the system, defended the system, and tweaked the system to work in ways that conservatives have criticized, but not been able to reverse.
The Anchorage Municipal election for 2024 is underway, and ballots will be mailed to all eligible, and a number of ineligible voters on or around March 13 from the printer in Washington state. On the ballot, LaFrance is running for mayor against other major candidates, including Mayor Dave Bronson, former Rep. Chris Tuck, Bill Popp, and others. It appears that LaFrance has a leg up on the other candidates by having an apparent inroad into the city’s election center, due to her longtime tenure and relationships with election personnel.
