By DANIEL SMITH
There has been too much tinkering with our election systems over the last few years.
“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” For those of us who are mechanically inclined and especially those of us who are not, we can identify with that tried-and-true saying.
Our election system is supposed to be that reliable vehicle that get us from point A to point B and never lets us down. It is supposed to help us keep our elected officials in check and help us get the people that we feel represent us best into office.
The current election system in Anchorage and the state is, however no longer serviceable and most certainly requires fixing. We need to push it into the garage, run diagnostics, and get busy with repairs.
If we do not make the necessary repairs to our election system we will find our election vehicles broken down on the side of the road, out of service with no available parts to reestablish the republic.
Let’s run through a quick diagnostic and check for specific, obvious problems.
There appears to be an indicator light on the dash says “mail-in system is fouled.” A quick read of the trouble shooting chart in the service manual says “Check for stolen voter information. If positive voter identification cannot be guaranteed, return to in person, paper ballots with voter identification.”
That seems simple enough.
We have had voter information hacked and stolen twice now (that we know of) from State systems, on a large scale. The Municipality of Anchorage gets its voter role information from the State. That could be one problem.
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.
Remember we are cautioned against this. The repair manual says, “If questionable unwanted aftermarket parts have been installed, check for a bad universal mail in ballot system that has likely plugged the integrity filter.” It goes on to say, “In the event of the Covid-driven hysteria which can cause abuse of mail-in ballots, remove and replace with original parts. See also: Reinstate witness signature requirements, which may have been illegally altered by the judicial branch of government system. This only applies to for those limited absentee ballots that might be requested by voters.”
The next column of the trouble shooting chart is titled, “If election system starts but won’t run.”
We seem to still be able to cast ballots, but counting seems to take much longer now for some reason. There are a number of solutions offered here. The first one might be the easiest to try.
The election repair manual says, “Try decentralizing the vote counting mechanism.” It quotes an infamous vote repair technician Joseph Stalin who said, “It doesn’t matter how many people vote, only who counts the votes.”
There could be a malfunction when trying to vote for an Assembly seat when the votes are counted by elections officials who are under the direct supervision of the Anchorage Assembly itself.
When paper ballots were counted by hand at a multitude of different precinct sites, and then reported to election central, this was never a large-scale problem. It was not broken. This part of the vehicle had lots of miles left on it and did not need to be replaced.
Still having trouble gaining faith in your rough-idling election system? Read the line under other possible causes. “Your election vehicle may not be compatible with modern digital components. Check for faulty vote counting machines.” This component is the proverbial black box. Only a very select few know how it works and what kind of computations go on inside this thing. Specialists with proprietary diagnostic tools are required to service this piece of the machine. We are making these repairs ourselves and do not want to be reliant on technicians of questionable character. As it turns out, the vehicle will run just fine without a Dominion vote counting machine or similar device. Simply remove it and dispose of in the hazardous waste bin.
If your election vehicle creates excessive smoke and mirrors, you may have a faulty Ranked Choice Voting muffler bearing. You cannot go down to the auto parts store and purchase a new replacement RCV. Just as with blinker fluid, it does not exist in a properly maintained voting vehicle.
Ranked Choice Voting does not subscribe to the one-person, one-vote requirement of proper election system maintenance. It is convoluted and results in unwanted outcomes, even if somehow magically installed correctly. The election owners’ manual says, “You may have missed some scheduled maintenance, but in no case let your politician sell you a Ranked Choice Voting System.”
There are too many issues with the state of our current election system that lead some to believe their vote does not matter. Three minutes of public testimony at an Assembly meeting, for example will not change the course of events if Assembly persons have made up their mind and have an agenda. Elections are the only real time the public gets a say in the government and its affairs.
Unless we get our election system fixed, we will be thumbing a ride and hoping that some politician will give us a lift to our intended destination. This is not only dangerous but it could be a long cold wait by the side of the road and we may end up down a very dark Marxist path, that we never intended to travel.
We can each make a difference if we start to restore the integrity of our election system one component at a time and support Sen. Mike Showers in his efforts with Senate Bill 39 to give our election vehicle a major and well needed overhaul.
Dan Smith is a lifelong Alaskan and Anchorage resident.
I support Mike Shower and his effort to get an election integrity bill passed. However, the priority is getting a full and complete forensic audit of the 2020 election in Alaska. Governor Dunleavy’s silence and complete lack of action regarding getting a forensic audit rolling in Alaska is shameful. Everyone that is paying attention knows the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen, and other voting issues such as RCV most likely didn’t pass without massive fraud. Holding his Lieutenant Governor Kevin Meyer accountable and publicly demanding a full and complete forensic audit of the 2020 election in Alaska should be his highest priority. The 22 month clock is running out, and the people know it.
If only we could send out an emergency message via cell phones to Mike and Kevin. Oh, I guess that’s just for the Governor to use to scare the sheep about a virus, and get people to listen to his long list of mandates we all suffered through such as you must work from home as much as possible, you must stay 6 feet away from others even when outdoors, all individuals shall cease participation in public or private gatherings, except the homeless, and Dunleavy ordered the “closure of non-essential businesses.
So I am not holding my breath that anyone, including the Governor is going to do a damn thing to fix our election system. That takes leadership, and Alaska doesn’t have it. Maybe if the two Mikes switched spots we would get somewhere.
The solution is simple, but won’t happen. Conservatives need to stop whining and start working.
Step 1? Stop making excuses why you didn’t vote.
Yet another Alaska first that’s not something to be proud of is that we have the highest percentage of registered voters over and above the total number of actual people eligible to vote; at 118% if I remember correctly.
Lieutenant Governor Meyer was charged with investigating the problems mentioned in the article as well as the two hacks that stole information of 200,000 Alaskans. Apparently however, Meyer’s report is top secret as Senator Mike Shower has been trying to get it for 5 months but has been given the runaround by first the Office of Lieutenant Governor then by Senate President Micciche. Now they’re telling Shower to file a Freedom of Information Act request as though he, a sitting Senator, has no right to ask for such information so basic to our freedoms and our form of government.
I’ve answered a lot of federal Freedom of Information Act requests when I was a Fed and a whole bunch more State Public Records Act requests when I was a State employee. I had some discussion of this issue with Lt. Gov. Meyer last week. Apparently there is some material in the report that relates to an ongoing criminal proceeding and that specific information is statutorily confidential. I agree with the Lt. Gov. on this point. He insists that it cannot be released because it isn’t finished. Drafts and work product are not protected from disclosure. Anything you produce in your capacity as a State officer or employee is a public record unless it is covered by an explicit statutory exception, and there are only a handful of those as Sarah Palin learned to her chagrin.
The hounds of media Hell are not baying after this report because any objective look at State election processes is going to disclose a bunch of stuff that the Left/media doesn’t want to talk about. Pravda, excuse me, the ADN once was the champion of free access to government information; most of the controlling court cases have their name in the caption. They seem to have lost interest now that free access to information might cramp the Democrat voting machine.
Why Meyer and Micciche are protecting this information is a little more obscure, though it may be as simple as they are getting bad advice from Law, Leg Legal, or both. That said, I long ago learned that if a government process is totally screwed up, as is our voting system, it is because the people in charge of the process like it that way.
So how did you get the info?
Thank you very much for the information and polite reply Art.
I wish it was only a lack of communication from Meyer, Dunleavy and pretty much his entire administration—which they seem to be very negligent at with both the Legislature and all of Alaska—but it seems there’s a lot, lot more to it than that. The issue of the report in question above is a perfect example. They just lied to Shower, telling him he could have the report “soon” (over 5 months ago) and if there are things in it that may pertain to legal preceding as you wisely point out, could they not at least sit down with Mike and give him the information in that report not pertaining to legal matters? Or simply redact the names of those who possible broke State voter laws—though I seriously, seriously doubt Meyer’s office or anybody else will ever indict so much as one person other than perhaps those that hacked voter records.
Some of those check engine lights are programmed to come on to get you in for a checkup when nothing is wrong. Alas, everyone knows you can drive another 20 or 30,000 miles with your check engine light on. Perhaps you only need a reset.
Agreed. Get rid of the dominion voting system implemented by the state of Alaska. There is zero trust in them. Paper ballots, retained for 24+ months. Vote in person. Mail-in ballots are the new way of stuffing the ballot boxes. Show ID (already a requirement in Alaska).
Paper ballots are retained and the Dominion machines through numerous audits have been proven to be 100% reliable
The voting systems in the United States and Alaska have multifaceted problems. Voting in America is regulated at the state level, not by the feds. Every state must fix the voting systems in each state. The Republican Party and the Democrat Party have become one Marxist supporting party and this needs to change too. No special interest group(s) should be ruling America. Not technology groups, not pharmaceutical groups and certainly not W.H.O, or the World Economic Forum or United Nations or other groups outside of America. America must remain sovereign.
We the People of Alaska demand a forensic audit of Nov 2020 mail in elections. (Maybe ranked voting was not actually a valid vote. If there is nothing to hide then lets prove it.) We the People demand the State of Alaska do their job and secure the voter registration database AND clean the voter roles as requested by Judicial Watch. We the People of Anchorage demand restoration of in person voting with voter ID as required by law, with blockchain ballots and hand counts or at least not use questionable voting machines, that have imbedded algorithms or code to alter actual votes or allow outside access via the Internet.
Mr. Daniel Smith, I believe that this was an excellent analysis on the matter, and ATS your comments are poignant.
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Please count me as being among those who DEMAND a forensic audit of the November 2020 election. The Ranked Choice Voting portion of the election had a basis, and results, that I believe were inorganic. It fit the pattern that we saw elsewhere, to a T. A couple of readily identifiable issues with it, is that it complicates the counting of paper ballots (which it would appear is by design), and if it will not let you pick the candidate that you want to vote for, right down the line, then it is forcing you to vote for something that you don’t want. I can only imagine the long talks Senator Murkowski had with her colleague Senator Collins who had experience working that system, about “how advantageous” it was.
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The mess we are in is going to be hard to fix. It will literally be impossible, if we do not fix the voting system.
Playing fast any loose with mail in voting, the democrat dream cheat strategy under the cover of Covid, no chain of custody, fake signature check standards. Unfortunately half the nation is easily duped. Let’s go joe brandon is the result.
Why would the beneficiaries of said broken system have any desire to fix it?
Simple in person voting with photo ID and signature, votes counted at the precinct voting station always worked so well. Why tinker with it?
Right on!! Go back to in person and get the results in one day.
Correct. See my comment below.
Simpler is better, almost always.
The Left has successfully transformed elections, conducted on election day, into a very extended time for them to “harvest” votes. Cleaning up the process requires two changes: First, reasonably constrain the time for marking ballots, and, second, reasonably constrain the number of people that touch any ballot. For the first issue, IMO, seventy-two hours is a good number. For the second, three is a good number – one to hand out the ballot, one to mark it and one to count it. At most we could add one more to verify the counting. The more that we add to any of these numbers, the less honest the election.
Dunleavy holding his Lieutenant Governor Kevin Meyer accountable and publicly demanding a full and complete forensic audit of the 2020 election in Alaska should be his highest priority. Wake up you two or forget my vote in the future. Do your job!
Anchorage is a woke joke; over 50 percent governmint dependents. Bureaucrateville evidently. How much do you want to invest here.
Love the creative metaphor! Get rid of mail in voting, ranked choice voting and require identification.
Assembly to Anchorage: you’ve got three minutes; shut-up!; get-out!; throw ’em out; next!, you’ve got three minutes… What time is it? 10:30 pm? They’re all in bed. Let’s get that 168 million spent. Next. Committee meetings every day. Really we need a woke detox center like Rand says. :*(
Might help to check the anti ballot-harvesting system too…
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Could be bypassed, even stolen…
First of all Alaska should conduct a forensic audit of the 2020 election cycle. There is not much trust in Dominion Voting Systems by a lot of voters & if for that reason only, the state should forbid the use of that product here.
Well said. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy; if the fix isn’t in, but the voters feel like it is, then the effect is the same as the voters stay away. Why we have machines we can’t even look into, in a state this size, that doesn’t even need machines at all, is beyond reason. Even if we wanted machines, the fact we had to pay millions and we can’t look inside, effectively makes the maker of the machine have more control than DOE. This is insane. What reasonable person would want this? We have a new system of voting, no one really understands and DOE certainly can’t explain in a cogent way, so we will have chaos on Election Day, but now we will also be at the mercy of machines we can’t look inside of, to see if the vote matches up. Chaos and corruption. The only people who want that, are the people that bought the machines and pushed the law; The Walker and Murkowski teams.
It’s 8:30 am Thursday. Clerk’s office one woman show contractedly closed for sure now. You’ve got three minutes November 8th if you’ve got a problem. PS All 270,000 other Anchorage residents have the same problem; count to nine. “Vote” in the counter commie culture. They care so much that they will give you thirty days to mourn when your loved ones leave the planet due to lack of available early treatment items to them. Keep voting woke.
Okay let’s talk turkey….starting small, how do we get rid of the mail-in-ballot system in Anchorage and Juneau? Since I am not a lawyer, don’t play one one TV or stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, I hope some one here has an idea that works.
As for the Lt. Governor, if parts of the report are still being used in a criminal probe, then redact those parts and release the rest post haste.
Start with an overwhelming conservative voter turn out. Change the assembly members then rid ourselves of mail in ballots.
Kevin Meyer was warned repeatedly before he purchased these machines to not buy them due to the fact that they could be easily hacked!!
Many people will testify to the fact that they informed him of this concern.
Please sign the petition above and let’s give Kevin Myer a booster shot where it hurts to motivate him and this Dunleavy administration to do a forensic audit on the 2020 election and reveal the crime that has taken place.
Now is the time as other states like Arizona and Wisconsin are revealing what took place. Dunleavy never wants to lead , he doesn’t have to here either. Simply follow Arizona and Wisconsin
Why would the beneficiaries of said broken system have any desire to fix it? Because they want to create problems where none exist. All it will take to really tumble society is for them to attack the US dollar. Remember it is only backed by faith, nothing else. IRNO
First of all, the mail in voting system has worked very well wherever it has been used, has multiple checks to make sure votes are legit, and has been shown to be secure and reliable. This is supported by all the evidence from the 2020 election returns in all states and the so called “audit” in AZ which was really an attempt to cast suspicion on the certified results. This is the truth. You can believe it, or you can live in the fantasy world created for you by Trump, who was unwilling to acknowledge that he rightly lost the election and seems willing to do anything he can to get back into the White House. That sounds like sedition to me.
Secondly, we have a new, tuned up voting system, Ranked Choice, that has been selected by Alaska state voters. Now, we can vote for any of the candidates running for an office instead of having to truckle under to the political party hacks who insist on selecting their candidates in closed primaries. These guys can’t stand the idea that they cannot run the primaries their own way and are using specious arguments to try to convince gullible voters that they, the voters, are the ones being denied the right to select which candidate they want. Think about this. Party primaries are organized by parties. If you aren’t a member of the party or otherwise eligible to vote in the party primary (that’s the case with the Repubs), you really don’t have a free choice to vote for a candidate in that party. With Ranked Choice you can choose from all the candidates running. That’s the definition of being able to vote for your candidate of choice. Plus, you get to rank them. If there’s someone you really don’t like, you can express that by putting that candidate at the bottom of your list.
Dan’s trying to sell you on and old, rattle-trap kind of elections system by telling you all it needs is a little fixup here and a little tune up there when there’s a shiny, new election system just outside the door waiting to go for a drive. Don’t be fooled. You should get to vote for whomever you want, not just the candidates the party apparatchiks put up in front of you. That’s what happens in places like Russia and Venezuela.
This is too complicated and therefor not transparent to most voters. If you can’t simply count the votes by hand and need some math degree tho figure out who won, the chance for manipulation and more lawsuits rises exponentially.
Frankly I would be loathed to give any vote to a candidate I despise, that thought alone disenfranchises me from several rounds of voting. RCV may bring all candidates together, but it also manipulates the vote, so that the candidate with the most votes in the traditional sense of a majority, will no longer be guaranteed to be the chosen winner. The more candidates you add the murkier the field and the more spread out the voting results will be. This reminds me of the Weimar Republic, which fell apart because of all the splinter parties. Remember Ross Perot? He gave us Bill Clinton.
Party primaries used to be a vetting process, to sort out the field and find the strongest candidate to represent the voter vision of the way to govern. RCV eliminates that vetting and places a “roulette wheel” at the center with an air of arbitrary selections depending on the number of entries.
HE, I need to point out that your comparison of our current system to the old Soviet Union Russia or Venezuela is flawed, as they had only ONE party rule, no debates or choice of candidates, nice try though.
Petitions. Net
Go to forensic audit
Sign it send a message
Brilliant article!
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