DEMOCRATS TRYING TO PUSH MAIL-IN-ONLY OPTION
Alaska is a “no-excuse” state for voters, meaning that they have several options for casting their ballots.
- They have the mail-in option, done through absentee ballots.
- They have the early voting option, which means they can vote 15 days prior to the election.
- And they have the “day of election” option, which is the traditional method for most voters.
Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer says Alaska voters will continue to have all those options; he’s not ready to close off two of them in favor of mail-in ballots.
Many Democrats, including Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, have been pressuring the lieutenant governor to switch to an all-mail-in election for the Aug. 18 primary. Spohnholz has been urging Democrats to contact the Division of Elections, to demand a mail-in election.
Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins sponsored a bill in 2019 to move to a mail-in ballot system favored by Democrats, but although it was referred to his committee, he never held a hearing on the bill. Quite suddenly, he has scheduled his HB 150 bill for a hearing on May 19, one day after the Legislature arrives back in Juneau next week. Critics believe the Democrats are trying to force the mail-in ballot system this year.
But Lt. Gov. Meyer said today it would be impractical to mail two ballots to every eligible voter, and not expect a high error rate in their return. With 550,000 registered voters, and with 70 percent of them might want to vote one or another of the primary ballots (Republican ballot or Democrat-everthing-else ballot), he said there would be as many as 600,000 unsecured ballots floating around on kitchen tables, in garbage cans, and elsewhere, posing a security risk to the election.
Further, ballots must be provided in various languages, Meyer said. And with only 95 days left until Aug. 18, there’s too little time to ensure that the state can meet the terms of the law on language-specific ballots.
Meyer said he has been on calls with other Secretaries of State, which he serves as for Alaska, to learn about their experience with voting recently. Nebraska just did in-person voting and had a record turnout.
He said what was most important for Alaska voters were:
- Maximum access to voting. Alaskans should not have their access to ballots reduced.
- The state will produce the elections in ways it has always done, but with more safeguards such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and social distancing.
- Voters will still be able to utilize absentee ballots, and the Division of Elections will mail absentee ballot applications to Alaska voters ages 65 and older.
- Voters will also be able to vote in person 15 days before the election.
- Special needs machines will be available at 441 locations across the state, something that the state cannot provide by mail.
Your most salient point was made for those who can actually be challenged by filling out their ballot at home. Especially when voting in person they will have the ability to vote in a comfortable manner. Limiting any of our options for voting is absolutely wrong. Thank you Suzanne!
Democrats everywhere pushing for mail-in ballots…makes me wonder why?
I’ll tell you why, Mudshark. It’s because Democrats know that mail-in ballots is where weaselwork can go undetected. Mail-in voter fraud first started with the trade unions during their internal elections. The corrupt union masters practiced election fraud down to a science. Democrats learned these methods and apply them whenever and wherever allowed. Kevin Meyers needs to understand this. The reason Democrats get away with it is because the risks are low if they get caught. Election fraud punishment is akin to a slap on the hand. Christine Gregoire in WA state actually became governor, even when election fraud was discovered.
Sure just ask Stacy Abrams. Republican Party showed us exactly how it’s done!? Could it be that there would be no way for gerrymandering in mail in voting???
We really have no idea who is submitting mail-in ballots. A notary or two witnesses should be required.
The Dems picked the wrong person to advocate for limiting voting to just mail in only. Poison Ivy Spohnholz lost all credibility with the Dunleavy administration and most Alaskans about a year ago when she did the “me too” accusation against a Fish Board nominee. Even within her own party she has little respect. She is almost irrelevant. She just doesn’t know it.
I’m not sayIng there aren’t those who would cheat on the right, but we are in a strange time in our history because literally no one on the left, would dismiss cheating as a legitimate way to win, so long as it was a way to win; there is no longer (if there ever was) any ethical obstacle whatsoever..“Win at all cost and by any means” is the motto of the American left.
I don’t see how it could get any more tribal than it is, and yet I don’t for a minute see it getting any less. We are two countries, with two totally different visions for America, and I’ll freely admit I think the other side’s vision isn’t just wrong (socialism/communism), but it is as close to institutionalized evil as the world has ever known.
Likewise, the left feels personal property, and freedom of speech (becoming more and more freedom of thought) are like this virus and need to be stamped out.
Any opportunity for fraud will not only be welcomed by the left, but maximized to its fullest potential like “motor voter” in Orange County 2018. We face the very real possibility of losing the country at some point soon, not to any wave of change in the electorate, but due to things like that and mail in voter fraud. Losing a country to shifting demos and ideologies is one thing, but having one taken out from under you by these sorts of means is not going to go over well at all..
Really Lawrence, you think there is a big conspiracy by the Dems to cheat like hell? There is a bit of sarcasm in that question because I DO agree with some of your statements. However…there is a principle in science called “Occams’ Razor” which scientists are fond of which basically states; ‘the simplest answer is the right one’. I have always been slightly amused when a scientist invokes it because ‘Occam’, in AD 1327, was saying the simplest explanation was that God exists. In the modern day, the irony of this is that these same scientists will go through all kinds of convoluted theories and mathematics in an effort to prove God doesn’t exist! The simplest answer is still God. So I have a much simpler answer as to the motivations of the Dem leadership in this case. Statistically, Republicans are individually wealthier than Dems.. This is INHERENT in the system though it’s not as obvious as it was when I was a kid. The Republican party was those who did not want change because they were comfortable. The Democrats were the party of change, and back in the 1960’s change was good because, be honest, you old school Republicans were real slime balls! Democrats who were successful under the American system would often become Republicans, no longer wanting change. This was a constant drain on the the D party of those who had the “get up and go” to succeed, leaving behind the ‘Couch Potatoes’. Then the Dems fell down the hole that is socialism or perhaps more accurately ‘Couch Potatoism’ ! Republicans would do well to heed this disaster as your ‘corporate bailouts’ WILL have this same result!. (Disclosure: I collect SOCIAL Security Retirement and am darn glad it exists.) The reason the Dems want a mail in ballot is to make it so much easier for their couch potatoes to vote. If they ever pass a law that people could vote using their remote, the Republicans would never win again! They also want time to bombard the ‘potatoes’ with ads telling them what to do. Occams’ Razor.
Occam’s Razor is used often in the philosophy of common sense and logic. Take for instance, the example I presented in the above comments. Christine Gregoire (Democrat) had been expected to win the WA state governor’s race over Dino Rossi (Republican). When all ballots were counted, Rossi won. So they recounted a second time and Rossi still won. Then a third time and hecwon again. But 100 mysterious ballots appeared behind a precinct curtain and on the fourth recount Gregoire won by a few votes. No more recounts. Never trust a Democrat with spare ballots. Cheating and lying about it is in their DNA.
Your comments are well thought out and with details to back up what you say. However, I think you over generalize with the DNA comment. Says the guy generalized Dems as ‘Couch Potatoes’! If we overdo the generalizations then it causes us to have a weak point in our argument which can be attacked. I could probably rip up your DNA comment in a few minutes, as well as my potato comment. My point now is we risk looking like conspiracy theory crackpots if we go too far. My previous point was similar…we don’t need to accuse the Dems of a grand conspiracy to cheat when the truth is so much simpler. Look, the Dems know that mail-in voting with a weeks long window favors them so much that they won’t have to cheat! They can run ads for two weeks: “Check box Dem. Sign at the “X”. Seal the envelope. Now get off your fat butt and walk the few feet to your mailbox”. WE should be opposed to this, but the likelihood of cheating should not be the centerpiece of that argument.
Thank you, Kevin for using common sense. I live in the Soldotna area and I will volunteer to help at the polls. Thank you.
Early voting is in the Democrats’ playbook. Lt. Gov Meyer, trash early voting. Early voting is ripe for fraud.
I didn’t vote in this year’s Anchorage municipal election because my ballot never arrived. Christine Hill proved to be a tenacious campaigner. She also demonstrated a repeated pattern of passive-aggressive behavior towards voters who insisted on substance from her when discussing issues. This could very well have had something to do with her narrow loss. If this lack of substance on her part would have at all motivated me to vote for Felix Rivera, a Democrat initially recruited by fellow Democrats, you would think his backers would have accommodated my ability to vote besides being solely at the mercy of an antiquated and habitually unreliable means such as the postal service. We are in the 21st century, after all.
“There’s little doubt that as the number of mail-in ballots increases, so does fraud. A 2012 report in The New York Times noted that voter fraud involving mail-in ballots “is vastly more prevalent than the in-person voting fraud that has attracted far more attention, election administrators say. In Florida, absentee-ballot scandals seem to arrive like clockwork around election time.” According to a Wall Street Journal report on voter exploitation in Hispanic communities in Texas, mail-in ballots have “spawned a mini-industry of consultants who get out the absentee vote, sometimes using questionable techniques.” Poor, elderly, and minority communities are most likely to be preyed upon by so-called ballot “brokers.”
And we need go no farther than:
Senator Cathy Giessel – Alaska Senate
And: Gabrielle LeDoux
Member of the Alaska House of Representatives
I have no problem with absentee voting. I do have a problem with mass mailing ballots out to voter rolls that haven’t been purged in years and contain many people who are no longer here. Purge the voter rolls if you want to send out every “registered “ voter a ballot.
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