Attorney Scott Kendall, representing three Alaskan plaintiffs, has filed a legal challenge against the petition to recall the 2020 Ballot Measure 2, which made jungle primaries and ranked-choice general elections the novel voting method in Alaska state elections.
Kendall, who also represents the group that brought Ballot Measure 2 to Alaska — Alaskans for Better Elections — argues that the sponsors of the recall petition “intentionally conducted their signature petition drive illegally, thereby disqualifying thousands of signatures.”
The lawsuit names Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom.
Kendall, in his 37-page complaint, says “The Sponsors and their paid contractor specifically instructed their petition circulators to leave 22AKHE signature petition booklets unattended, with various people and at various places of business, all outside the presence of the individual circulators. These individual circulators followed these instructions and later retrieved many petitions to falsely certify them and the signatures they contained.”
Alaska Statute says signatures in a petition booklet must be personally witnessed by a circulator, and that signatures must be made only in the presence of the one individual circulator who certifies the booklet.
There are numerous other complaints made by the group, including that when the sponsors filed their full petition with the Division on Jan. 12, dozens of the individual signature petition booklets were not properly notarized as required by law.
“Alaska Statute 15.45.130 prohibits Defendants from counting petition booklets lacking a valid notarization or self-certification,” the group says in its complaint.
Additional charges are that numerous circulators acting on behalf of 22AKHE unlawfully allowed multiple individuals to circulate a single booklet and/or abandon signature petition booklets for unmonitored signature collection.
“When the illegally-collected signatures are removed from the Division’s calculation as required by law, 22AKHE no longer has a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the ballot and must be voided,” Kendall wrote on behalf of the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit advises the court that as time goes on, the litigants will probably add additional challenges to individual signatures in what is now known as the “22AKHE petition” booklets. This could prevent the matter from appearing on the ballot this year, if it is not resolved in favor of the Alaskans for Honest Elections group that organized the recall effort.
The complainants are Elizabeth Medicine Crow, Amber Lee, and Kevin McGee, all political operatives on the Democrat side of the political aisle. Crow was the longtime president of the First Alaskans Institute. Lee is a deputy treasurer on the Suzanne LaFrance for Mayor campaign team. McGee is the former president of the local NAACP.
