An election challenge has been filed with the municipal clerk’s office in Anchorage, raising allegations of voter disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of voters in the recent municipal election held on April 4.
The complaint, filed by citizens on May 4, points out significant issues related to the mailing of ballots and the election announcement postcards to active registered voters.
According to the complaint, it was expected that every active registered voter would receive a ballot and an advance postcard advertising the upcoming election.
However, the complaint asserts that neither of these measures were fully implemented, impacting the ability of thousands voters to participate in the electoral process.
The issues surrounding voter disenfranchisement were brought before the election commission during the public session of the canvass held on April 20. Challenges to elections cannot take place until after the election has been certified.
The election commission board was presented with a 33-page complaint by election observers at the time.
The complaint raises concerns about the failure to send election postcards to approximately 36,143 individuals out of the 235,564 active registered voters in Anchorage, as documented by the municipality.
Preliminary investigations revealed that prior to the start of the mail-in election, only 199,421 voters were mailed an election announcement postcard. However, the municipality subsequently printed and mailed 201,029 ballots.
There is no explanation for the discrepancy between the invitation to take part and the ballots mailed. The election challenge focuses on these discrepancies and questions the decision-making authority for creating the mailing list for election announcement postcards and ballot packages.
Municipal Code 28.40.020C says that the municipal clerk is not obligated to mail ballots to voters without valid addresses or those flagged as undeliverable. Critics argue that the discretion vested in the clerk’s office represents a concentration of power within the administrative state, since the authority is very broad.
The potential implications of this issue are significant, as the exclusion of 36,143 voters could have influenced the outcome of various races and ballot measures in the recent election.
Even if only 30% of those disenfranchised voters had participated, it would still constitute over 12,000 votes, which could have been decisive in assembly seat races, area-wide contests, and the fate of bonds.
The concerns raised in the complaint contend that the municipal ordinance, giving so much power to the Clerk, may violate state statutes pertaining to equal treatment of all voters. The seriousness of the matter has led the group behind the challenge to engage the services of attorney Joe Miller, who will represent them in pursuing a resolution to the discrepancies and potential infringements on voting rights.
The Municipal Clerk’s office has not issued an official response regarding the election challenge at the time of this report but the matter is on the agenda as Item 12a for Tuesday’s regular Assembly meeting.
The Assembly will make a decision about whether to accept the challenge and look into it or dismiss it, and there is no public hearing pertaining to that decision. Because the Assembly has routinely supported the office of the Municipal Clerk, it’s likely that the majority will vote to acknowledge the challenge, and then reject it.
Supporting documents in the Assembly agenda packet follow:
AR 2023-181_1_-NOTICE OF ELECTION CONTEST.5.15.FINAL.DOC
AR 2023-181_2_2023 AIM ELECTION CONTEST PROCEDURE.FINAL.DOC
AR 2023-181_4_2023-0504 NOTICE OF ELECTION CONTEST.PDF.PDF
AR 2023-181_5_CLERK S REPORT REGARDING MAY 4, 2023, NOTICE OF ELECTION CONTEST.DOC.DOC
AR 2023-181_6_CLERK S REPORT_ELECTION CONTEST_FINAL.DOCX.DOCX
AR 2023-181_7_EXHIBIT A_ANCH VOTES POSTCARD 2023_001.PDF.PDF
The Muni Clerk has abused voters for a long time and she should be fired. Our absentee ballots were mailed/postmarked in March and we received letters saying our votes did not count because they were postmarked after April 4th. I bet the envelopes were destroyed. Time to end the tyranny!
Remember, the Municipal Clerk works for the Assembly.
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One of the Municipal Clerk’s Assembly employers was Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance, who is now a mayoral candidate.
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A hardened cynic would expect the Assembly to support the office of the Municipal Clerk because each is willing to do what’s necessary to assure the other’s job security, and probably more to the point, each knows where the other’s secrets are hidden.
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Would it not be hilarious to watch this house of cards tumbling down during the discovery process and, by the way, dragging a mayoral candidate down with it?
Good luck with this.
I get the argument, but to get an election overturned, it’s takes a smoking cannon, not just a gun.
I can’t see this getting headway. But it is good to see someone actually fighting back for a change.
Sounds like! Some good old cleaning of databases! Take some time and call and reach out too people! Then delete the unresponsive! That’s when they need too show up and vote with ids at voting stations! People move and change phone numbers due to circumstance?
CORRUPTION! If they can’t win honestly, they cheat! The only way the democrats can win is by cheating!
Given that the assembly will be the gate keeper here, sans public comment, it seems this could be the last we hear of it. That is unless, of course, Tom Sconce, gets involved.
He is occupied stealing luggage right now
Democrats are just born cheaters, frauds and liars. Challenge them on everything.
Given that the Municipal clerk is at the beck and call of the leftists on the assembly and that the next stop would be the Alaska court system that is almost entirely staffed with avowed leftists, who actually believes that this could actually wend its way through the system and eventually result in a favorable ruling?
I mean come on!
Thank you for fighting back before just packing and retreating w/o a fight. This is for the
907christian “trust the Lord, and do good… Delight yourself in the. Lord… Commit your way to the Lord; trust
in him and he will act” psalm37:3-5. you can’t
fail when he is with you. Remember,too, suffering is used and is allowed to strengthen character during dark days. You
can’t be strengthed if you continully flee the storms.
“
how is voting by mail a thing? shouldn’t the barrier of entry for voting (at least for an able bodied person) be the ability and willingness to get out of your house for 15 mins?
Dem at em again, Jim Crow era (https://ballotpedia.org/Jim_Crow_laws) up north now.
Hey Suzanne, I just saw that your story on the Jill Biden visit to Bethel was picked up by the Daily Caller. Congratulations on having a story byline on a national media outlet. You have made it to the big time!
The jackass assembly will simply say “What me worry?”
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”
“I am the great and powerful OZ!!!” The leftist’s motto.
Yawn
Yes, that is the expected lack of concerned always-seen head-in-sand response by any radical leftist to any challenge to any injustice, crime or corruption that favors their cause (as most injustices, crimes and corruption do).
How did this favor the leftist cause? I did not see any break down of the locations where the advanced postcards were not delivered. Perhaps it was in areas that vote democrat. If voters are supposed to receive a ballot and postcard they should. But this had no affect on the election. People that vote don’t need a postcard. Also they can always vote in person. The conservatives need better candidates. I thought Brian Flynn was a viable candidate. His website was a joke. No mention of any community service or government involvement. It was embarrassing that he paid for that. You want to win run better candidates and get with the present. Nobody cares who Rick Mystrom endorses
“The Assembly will make a decision about whether to accept the challenge and look into it or dismiss it, and there is no public hearing pertaining to that decision. ”
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Rejected.
If the Assembly even bothers to discuss it I will be surprised, but you damn well know it will be rejected.
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What, if anything, is the next step? If the Assembly chooses to ignore/reject/dismiss the complaint can it be elevated?
Mail in voting is a disaster along with the RCV. If I lived in Anchorage and had to mail in my ballot I would do so by certified mail requiring recipient signature. There are so many holes in the Anchorage voting system it seems the only way a conservative can win an election is either if there are no other candidates or the kind of minute by minute vigilance that was employed when Bronson got elected. He was elected because a 24/7 team of people monitored the process. Now it is my understanding the assembly made sure that wouldn’t happen again by adding new ‘rules’ to their game. When there are no absolutes of right and wrong, no morals or ethics and the end justifies any means, what do you expect?
Bronson won because of Eagle River. His lack of leadership as mayor prevented conservatives from gaining votes in districts that lean progressive.
You mean, Leo, districts that lean communist.
Or I’ll accept “radical leftist extremist”, as nine of the twelve on the Anchorage ass-embly undeniably are. Which was NEVER the case before mail-in voting, but of course that is just a coincidence, I’m sure.
The Democrats used the scamdemic to change a lot of various ways things were done before without public input on the choices due to isolation and social distancing. The scam is over. We need to return to in person voting. One person with ID One ballot One vote. To hell with mail fraud! I know people that have six ballots show up in their mailbox every single election because that is the address six people use for mail. Those ballots can be voted any way one person wants them to be voted. The phony clerks office is a nothing but a sham when it comes to deciding whether a signature is legit or not. I have witnessed real authentic signatures denied multiple times. I refuse to vote by mail on account of this fraud!
It is time for EVERYONE to go back to work! The gravy train has taken its toll on the way everything is not getting done. Businesses cant even operate anymore.
Election Integrity is being attacked by this extremely misguided litigation. Ballots must be mailed only to real voters at real addresses. Since the Muni started its By-Mail elections, Muni clerk has worked with the State Division of Elections to ensure that Muni Ballots are mailed to real addresses. Whether the State or the Muni determines that the voter’s address is undeliverable, no Muni ballot should be sent to that bad address.
Election Integrity aims reduce these homeless ballots being issued.
Mailing a ballot to a home where that voter no longer resides is wrong and is an open invitation for voter fraud.
Furthermore, these voters with undeliverable addresses have had near zero voter turnout in recent elections. Most likely they are gone – from that house, that town or even Alaska. The premise that these ballots could have been cast, returned and counted to change the outcome of an election is false. Voter turnout for the 2023 Muni Election was under 30%.
If each of these undeliverable ballots have gotten into the proper hands, I predict the return rate from these voters would be significantly less than 5%. Hence no impact of the election results even if they block voted for maximum impact.
The Muni Clerk and the Division of Elections need to more effective in determining undeliverable ballots. Election Integrity will improve.
If a ballot is “undeliverable” that should also result in that person’s voter registration being investigated, and perhaps their registration suspended if they cannot be contacted.
Competent, autonomous adult human beings of normal intelligence, which includes all voters, should be able and willing to regularly check on their voter registration, particularly since it can be done on the same website as hunting and fishing licenses and the PFD. If they are lazy, their inability to vote in person will be their clue to fix the problem they created.
Indeed, the voter rolls should be cross-referenced every year with the State ID/DL system, birth and death records, the PFD records, Dept of Corrections records, and hunting and fishing license records. If there are discrepancies between addresses, or a lack of eligibility for any one of them, that voter should be contacted and provided an opportunity to correct their information, or be automatically removed from the voter rolls by the Division of Elections. Of course, those found with problems with their PFD information could also be contacted, and removed from eligibility for the PFD as necessary as well.
The PFD gives Alaska a unique way to verify eligibility to vote as the residency requirements are quite close and most eligible citizens apply for it. There’s really no excuse to not keep your information updated.
I agree with Randy on this. I hate all mail elections and I hate our over-bloated registration system. If the assembly were to agree with this challenge and require that everyone on the voter rolls were mailed ballots there would be 35,000 more ballots on the street. (undeliverable) No doubt many of these would be fraudulently cast.
Here we go again./ Because conservatives lost yet another election, the only possible explanation must be fraud. What a bunch of whiny snowflakes the right has turned into. It used to be just the far left that whined about their lot in life.
I would be complaining just as loud about 100% mail in voting, open primaries, and RCV if the conservatives won every race they were in. I am surprised that you are not up in arms about it. Then again, I will hazard a guess that your preferred candidates won.
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This voting scheme is rife with opportunities for fraud. It must be secured. Yet, when failures in the process are identified, and politicians choose to do nothing about it. What conclusion should the average person draw?
66% of Americans believe there was fraud in 2020 election. 45% of Democrats believe there was fraud. As more information comes out the left is losing the argument. I say we keep complaining. The truth will prevail
Surprise, surprise.
The Assembly decided not to investigate.
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What are the odds???
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