By KIM JARRETT | THE CENTER SQUARE
Officials with the Alaska Law Department say they have “serious concerns” about the timing of a lawsuit challenging Saturday’s special congressional election.
The Alaska State Commission on Human Rights is suing Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer and the Alaska Division of Elections over the mail-only election on behalf of a visually-impaired voter identified as “B.L.”
“B.L. filed a complaint with ASCHR on May 15, 2022, alleging that the ballot is not accessible to a visually impaired individual and that the DOE is engaging in discrimination on the basis of a disability based on its failure to provide accessible ballots or voting machines throughout the state, denying B.L and similarly-situated voters equal access to its services,” the lawsuit states. “Despite several meetings with ASCHR before and after the filing of B.L.’s ASCHR complaint over the lack of reasonable accommodations for visually impaired voters over the course of the last several weeks, the DOE does not plan to place touch screen voting machines at more than five locations throughout the State.”
The plaintiffs are asking elections officials not to certify the election “until such time as visually impaired Alaska voters are given a full and fair opportunity to participate in such election.”
A spokeswoman with the Department of Law said the office is still reviewing the lawsuit.
“The Division of Elections has serious concerns about the timing of this lawsuit and will ask that the court not upset the constitutionally and statutorily required special election, for which ballots were sent out over a month ago,” said Patty Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Law in an emailed statement. “These issues could have been raised much earlier, and the Division has not done anything differently than what it has done in the past for absentee voting. We are hopeful the court will agree.”
The Division of Elections “has systems in place to help all voters exercise their right to vote, even in a mail-in election.” Sullivan said
“A voter can get the assistance of a trusted person to complete the ballot received in the mail in the comfort of their own home,” Sullivan said. “Election workers can help voters with their ballots at any absentee-in-person location or division office. Or voters can fill out a ballot privately online using their own computer or tablet set to their own specifications. And, at division regional offices, tablets are available to fill out the ballot digitally for those who need it.”
Forty-eight candidates are vying to serve the remaining four months of the late U.S. Rep. Don Young’s term. Ballots must be postmarked by Saturday. More than 121,000 ballots had been received back at the Division of Elections as of Thursday.
The top four vote-getters will advance to a runoff held during the Aug. 16 primary.
“The plaintiffs are asking elections officials not to certify the election”
There it is…….the fix is in.
It’s impressive how hard Alaska has worked to screw this up.
Alaska: the Cleveland Browns of politics.
Visually impaired IDIOT! This individual had a month to remedy the problem. Get some glasses. Get your Communist spouse to help you. Go to the Election Division and seek assistance. But don’t file a lawsuit because YOU are an idiot. This is a suit that needs to be tossed out and severe penalties imposed on the plaintiff
for wasting taxpayers time and money, as well as trying to hold up an election. Make this IDIOT pay the price by spanking and putting a huge dent in his wallet.
Lakreesha, the saddest part of witnessing the downfall of our republic is knowing the source of all our problems is the stupidity of our electorate…. an electorate that allows itself to be manipulated by evil forces of a greedy establishment political class. The common sense expressed in your comment perfectly illustrates our problems.
Of course they’re suing – if the commies can’t actually win, they’ll try to steal. That’s what commies do. So why wait until the last second??? Either their motive really is that suspect or it took them that long to find a figurehead plaintiff. Fire the entire ASCHR Governor – for violation of the Alaska version of the Hatch Act.
Our election system is broken. Exactly as the left wanted it to be
So… we are still using voting machines… this is ignorant and Lt Gov needs to be fired.
The lawsuit is suspect but let’s face it- the mass mail in vote was a complete joke. It may be, that the will of the people is strong enough to override the fraud, but DOE made it as easy as possible to job several thousand votes. If it’s that close, the cheaters can win. The institution is corrupt. The next admin, or the next iteration of the current admin, MUST make this a top priority. It’s going to involve firing many in the bureaucracy and stripping the system back to common sense, in person voting, and paper ballots, counted by hand. This may be the easiest state in the union to do that, and there is no reason, other than the corrupt politicians and special interests the current protocols protect, that we aren’t already doing this way.
In the 6 years I worked elections in Anchorage, I only saw the touch screen used ONCE at my polling location.
Sounds like an unfair election.
Sounds like a great reason for ditching mail out voting. Bring back polls.
Early voting ballots must not be going in the direction the elites want. Maybe we can get another country to step in and help us have fair elections.
This is one remedy for ending the fraud that is mail in voting, the timing is suspect though.
Can the Alaska Law Department suggest that B.L. have a friend read the list of names to he/she/they/them and then have B.L. choose one? Too easy? I thought so. I’m with Geiger, though. We need to reinstitute in-person voting.
Comments are closed.