WILL THE STATE APPEAL?
Superior Court Judge Dani Crosby today ruled in favor of Arctic Village Council and the League of Women Voters, saying that absentee ballots do not need to have witness signatures on them.
Crosby said that due to the coronavirus, requiring a witness on absentee ballots is too much of a burden for voters. She said there’s no reason to believe that removing the signature witness requirement will lead to voter fraud.
The State of Alaska and the village have until Tuesday afternoon to advise the judge on how it will be enforced, since Alaskans are already voting in the Nov. 3 election.
The decision could throw the election into confusion since so many Alaskans are voting by absentee ballot this year, and may misunderstand that, for now, the signature witness rule is still in place. The Alaska Department of Law has not announced if it will appeal the ruling to the Alaska Supreme Court.
Crosby, a notoriously liberal judge, dismissed every single argument the State made to protect the integrity of the election, as though she had made her decision, and then worked back from there to rationalize it.
It’s the court giving Alaskans another example that demonstrates that Alaska’s courts are politicized, pushing causes for the Left, rather than to uphold the integrity of elections for all Alaskans.
Under Alaska’s method for choosing judges, members of the Alaska Judicial Council recommend names to the governor, and those names are nearly always of liberals, who are rated by members of the Alaska Bar Associations.
Alaskans have little say in the choice of judges, except during retention elections. Judge Crosby is up for retention this November.
