One thousand and twenty-two dollars is still a lot of free money in this day and age, but not as much as one might think.
The amount of this year’s Permanent Fund dividend amount, announced earlier this morning by video, is a 1982 equivalent of about $485. Inflation is a hard master.
Gov. Bill Walker recorded the video before leaving this week for Singapore, thus avoiding the uncomfortable questions that might come from an increasingly curious press. There would be no questions about the lawsuit that Democrats and his former staunch allies have filed against him for taking more than half of Alaskans’ dividends.
His press release directed reporters to call Revenue Commissioner Randall Hoffbeck for further information, while the governor was otherwise engaged on his Asia gas promotion trip.
He did not leave the tough matter to Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott or Hoffbeck. No, with this method of tape-delay messaging, nothing was left to chance.
The governor’s video recording showed him being politely interviewed by a Palmer high school student, the same girl who helped him announce the amount last year. She had a sheet before her from which she read a couple of questions that had been given to her for the occasion, because that was an easier way for Walker to pivot to his budget message.
With his piggy bank charts behind him, Walker used the occasion to reiterate that if Alaska’s budget deficit isn’t addressed, there will be no more Permanent Fund checks in the future.
Intended to be a “nothing to see here” announcement, it was the equivalent of hiding behind a winsome child in a controlled environment to deliver difficult news. By the time he returns from Asia, the media will be on to other stories, such as elections and more Anchorage crime.
Last year, during the annual PFD announcement, the governor said he did not want to politicize the event, saying past governors engaged in too much fanfare.
But this year, he dove into the politics of it by making the announcement all about the budget and threats to future dividends.
BETWEEN THE LINES: A POPULATION CRASH UNDERWAY?
In 2015, 676,379 Alaskans applied for a Permanent dividend. 644,000 qualified. Today’s press release from the governor states that 643,000 Alaskans qualify.
That net loss of 1,000 qualified applicants represents a drop in population for the year ending in December, 2015.
As for charitable giving, last year, 34,000 PFD recipients donated $3.4 million to charities, about 7,000 mor than in 2014 and with $700,000 more in dollar value contributions.
This year, there has been no announcement regarding contributions to the Pick.Click.Give program, which has grown since its inception in 2009.
A call by Must Read Alaska to the Department of Revenue went to voice mail, but we’ll update when more information is made available.
At this time in 2015, the Permanent Fund was $51.5 billion. This year, it has reached $54.5 billion, a nearly six percent increase.
(Story corrected to reflect 644,000 qualifying for PFDs in 2015.)
GOVERNOR TALKS FOR 17 MINUTES ABOUT ALASKA’S TORTURED HISTORY WITH GAS
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, through the state gasline agency he now firmly controls, reported earlier this month that Alaska paid $25,000 to be a silver sponsor of the CWC World LNG & Gas Series 8th Asia Pacific Summit.
Other silver sponsors were ExxonMobil, BP, and Cheniere Energy.
What did Walker get for his silver sponsorship? And what did he deliver for the people of Alaska?
There was the sponsored break during the conference for the usual social capital part of the event: Coffee, juice, and a chance to talk to the governor’s team.
Beyond that, Walker got a crack at the podium.
What did he talk about during his third time at the annual conference?
The storytelling was classic Walker. While the substance did not appear to advance Alaska’s actual economic realities, we’ll unpack his telling for the busy reader:
His 17-minute speech started off with an introduction of his co-travelers, Alaska Gasline Development Corporation President Keith Meyer, Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Andy Mack, Walker’s oil and gas chief cabinet adviser John Hendrix, and First Lady Donna Walker.
Next came the perfunctory ice breaker, which consisted of the irresistable Alaska ribbing of the petite state of Texas.
Walker transitioned into a folksy account of his rustic upbringing: He was born in the Territory days and lived in a house that was heated only with wood; the cold mornings of his Alaska youth.
He described how Alaska became an “owner state “in 1959:
“The federal government said you are a long ways away from Washington. You have to live off the land. You have to live off the resources. You cannot sell those resources in the ground. So we can’t. We don’t. If the resources don’t get developed, we don’t have an income in our state. So it’s very critical that those resources become developed. ”
The speech cost Alaska $1,470 a minute, or $24 a second. Walker appeared acutely aware of time, and spoke quickly — rushing at times, stumbling at others, sticking to notes at times, improvising at others.
He criticized the immediate past governor for not responding to Walker’s many overtures to get a gasline built to Valdez. There was a bit of revisionist history as he described the Alaska Gasline Port Authority project that he worked on for years for Valdez, and his frustration with Gov. Sean Parnell for not pursuing it:
“Finally, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I just turned off my computer and said I just can’t watch all these projects around the world be developed and ours continued be reinjected into the ground. I turned off my computer, I sold my company and ran for governor.”
That was $1,000 worth of storytelling, because he had also run for governor earlier, but when every word in a speech is costing $10 bucks, one might be tempted to compress history into a concept.
Walker described how Alaskans in 2000 voted overwhelmingly for a state-owned gasline project. That is why he was excited when, as he described it, the former partners of the AK-LNG project asked him to take over the whole thing this year.
“I accepted that offer without hesitation,” he told the room.
The governor then inserted a last-minute addition: His disappointment in a recent Forbes Magazine article that proclaims the Alaska LNG project has crashed and burned. It was as though he just had to address the elephant in the room.
“What I say about the crashing and burning part, I guess it’s all how you view it,” he said.
“We’ve tried absolutely everything else except the State of Alaska standing up and acting like a sovereign as other countries have around the world and made sure their projects get to market.”
The timeframe for the project? Walker told the gathering that it is on track for the 2023-2025 schedule and that “we are for the first time in our state’s history acting like a sovereign.”
“It’s really is time we dismiss study hall and go to work and build this project,” he said.
WOOD MACKENZIE REPORT
The governor’s speech referenced an August, 2016 Wood Mackenzie report on the project’s competitiveness. That report says: “Of the peer group of projects, Alaska LNG has amongst the highest break-even cost of supply, even at the lowest capex estimate.” That’s not what you’d want to read, if you were launching a $55-65 billion project.
The report speculated that the cost could come down if the project was entirely State owned and attained tax-exempt status. But under that scenario, the report noted: “Even the removal of all taxes on pipeline and plants is insufficient to reduce the cost of supply below the current level of LNG prices.”
Interestingly, a Wood Mackenzie report completed for Walker’s dormant Alaska Gasline Port Authority in 2011 said the project was viable: “From an economic perspective, Alaska LNG exports are competitive, viable across scenarios, and could generate between $220 and $419 billion for Alaska.” To view that five-year-old report, see the AGPA website here.
To flip through the highlights of the current Wood Mackenzie report on the projected competitiveness of the project, which is less rosy, click here.
To view the 17-minute, $25,000 speech, click here.
Or here for another slice of reporting on Walker’s history with gas, by KTOO’s energy reporter Rachel Waldholz.
JUNEAU – The cruise ship Zaandam pulled into port this morning, just an hour ahead of a big wet southeasterly that drenched Alaska’s capital city with the first good soaking of autumn.
By 9 a.m. the ship’s captain was escorting the one millionth cruise ship passenger and her husband (the one millionth and one) off the vessel. Everyone was all smiles, in spite of the blustery weather.
A small band of raincoat-clad Juneauites were on hand to celebrate the return of the strength of the cruise industry to Southeast ports.
It had been seven years since Juneau had reached one million passengers, and today was a recognition of the importance of good tax policy and reasonable regulations.
John and Wendy Yoisten of Canada arrive in Juneau.
As raindrops started to spit sideways, John Binkley, head of Cruise Lines International Alaska, welcomed Wendy and John Yoisten of St. Albert, Alberta, Canada. Binkley acknowledged past leaders of Alaska who had fixed a tax-and-regulate scheme that had driven away business.
As Binkley spoke about the important changes that had restored tourism in Alaska, Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott stood by to greet the couple, perhaps not recalling that he once proposed his version of a cruise ship tax, one that would have taken a bite out of any ship that even sailed by his home town of Yakutat.
WHY ONE MILLION IS A BIG DEAL
It was in 2006, when the citizens’ initiative, Measure 2, set the cruise passenger head tax at a steep $46 a passenger, and imposed draconian environmental standards on cruise ships — water purification standards so high that even Alaska’s municipalities didn’t have to achieve them. In fact, the water discharge standards were so high that there was no technology on earth that could meet them.
By then, the cruise companies were already booked for 2007, but by the next year decisions were already being made to pull out of the Alaska market. Small business owners across Alaska felt the pinch. They laid off workers and stopped expanding as cruise companies moved ships out of Alaska to places like Europe, where they were being treated fairly.
Some said it was the economy, but the fact remains that the cruise industry grew that year and the years following — just not in Alaska.
“The cruise lines didn’t tie the ships up,” said Mike Tibbles, government affairs director of Cruise Line International Association of Alaska. “The cruise industry kept growing all that time, but Alaska didn’t grow. We lost 5,000 jobs after the initiative went into effect. Alaska took a hit, but the ships kept sailing.”
Businesses up and down the Inside Passage weren’t the only ones feeling the pain of lost business. City coffers also gave up revenue, as cruise passengers provide 20 percent of the sales tax receipts in places like Juneau.
Local civic leaders got involved because watching a growing industry die on the vine was alarming. By 2009, there was a lawsuit filed by the industry against Alaska for what the was viewed as punitive and unfair treatment.
The Parnell Administration went about setting things right. Gov. Sean Parnell traveled to SeaTrade — the cruise trade show — in Miami in 2010 to communicate the message that Alaska wanted their passengers and vessels back.
He asked cruise industry leaders “What can Alaska do to bring back major investment?”
From there, a three-part plan developed as Parnell began to work on legislation that scaled back what had become one of the highest head taxes in the world, and made sure Alaska’s cruise ship water regulations could be actually accomplished with the existing clean water technology.
Parnell also proposed and the Legislature passed funding to significantly beef up marketing for tourism at a time when it was most needed. It took time, but by the next year, the itineraries started to reflect a better relationship between Alaska and the cruise industry.
THIS YEAR: ONE MILLION AND 14 THOUSAND CRUISING ALASKA
Alaska will set a new record for cruise visitors this year, with one million, 14 thousand visitors. It has been a long seven years and untold lost revenues to local businesses and governments. If Measure 2 had not passed, and the ships had not left, the municipalities would not have given up what is now in the tens of millions of dollars.
Next year Holland America is adding another ship to the Inside Passage, bringing north another 35,000 visitors. That ship, the Oosterdam, was added recently, and gives the sales teams just six months to get those 35,000 tickets sold. That normally would be a challenge, but sources Must Read Alaska spoke with said they have confidence they can sell the staterooms.
For 2017 the news is great: Alaska can now expect a new record of 1,050,000 cruise passengers, according to Must Read sources.
“The future for Alaska really looks good,” said Tibbles. “It’s now considered to be a stable environment for industry with more reasonable taxes and regulations.”
That could change. Gov. Bill Walker proposed a new head tax premium in the most recent legislative session and, although it was batted down by the Legislature, it was and still may be part of his fiscal restructuring plan. Will he try again?
Walker would do so at his own peril. Cruise ships are not like hotels with fixed footprints; They can be moved, and as the past seven years showed Alaska, they will be moved if taxes and regulations are not competitive.
ORTIZ’ ACTUAL ACCOMPLISHMENT: FORCING LEGISLATURE INTO SPECIAL SESSION
KETCHIKAN – The House race between two well-known people in Ketchikan is heating up with reports that Indie-Democrat Daniel Ortiz has claimed an all-important endorsement — one that he hasn’t received.
Ortiz, incumbent for District 36, sent a letter to voters saying he has the endorsement of United Fishermen of Alaska. He doesn’t. He did in the 2014 cycle, but this time, not so much. UFA has not given an endorsement in this race.
His challenger, Republican Bob Sivertsen, has been a gentleman about the false endorsement statement, as Ketchikan is a close-knit community and people are reluctant to call others out on matters such as this. But the fishing community has been talking. So have other leaders that Must Read Alaska spoke with this week.
In fact, Ketchikan conservatives say Ortiz is taking credit for the same things that other Democratic incumbents are proud of:
He “worked closely with independent Governor Walker,” Ortiz notes in his letter to voters, saying he is a “steady, consistent voice calling for the Legislature to adopt a fiscal plan.”
Ortiz leaves out the key piece: He and the Democrats forced the Legislature into four special sessions. Because of his unwavering allegiance to the minority’s refusal to pass the budget, the spending ballooned back up with his support.
The Ortiz pattern of taking credit continued as he claimed he alone protected the funding for the Ketchikan Airport access project.
But Ketchikan political observers point out that the money is federal transportation funds earmarked by Rep. Don Young with SAFETEA-LU, and cannot be removed from the Ketchikan area without a change in federal legislation, or if for some reason Gov. Bill Walker found a way to move it by fiat.
Ortiz was the test case for Democrats in the 2014 election cycle, using a long-time Democrat to run as an “independent,” and then caucusing with Democrats.
It’s a pattern being rolled out across the state by the Alaska Democratic Party in the 2016 cycle, as they cannot successfully run candidates under the ADP flag any longer.
Several Democrats are now running as independents, including the boss of the AFL-CIO, Vince Beltrami, who is making a play for Senate District N.
Ketchikan is a conservative part of the state, but the race could be close, because many voters are not yet aware that Ortiz is part of a bigger plan for Democrats to take over the House and to weaken the Senate, so they can push through an income tax that will fund government payroll.
Bob Sivertsen was born and raised in Ketchikan, and is in his third term on the Ketchkan Assembly. He worked for the City of Ketchikan’s Public Works Department for thirty-eight years at duties that ranged between carpentry, dog catcher, sign painter, heavy equipment operator, and float builder.
House District 36 serves Wrangell, Hyder, Meyers Chuck, Loring, Ketchikan, Hydaburg, Metlakatla, & Saxman.
A debate between the two candidates is scheduled for Oct. 19 at the Ted Ferry Civic Center in Ketchikan. Will the moderator ask Ortiz to defend his claims of productivity? Or will the debate be “Ketchikan nice”?
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and Police Chief Chris Tolley won’t confirm or deny there is a serial killer stalking the urban trails of Anchorage.
Three unsolved double homicides have left joggers, the homeless and everyone in between on edge.
Isn’t it time they tell us if they suspect a serial killer is loose on our trails?
The mayor’s advice to children who are worried for their safety is: “What I can tell you is what I tell my own kids, which is, make sure to say goodnight to your parents so they know where you are, stay in your bed, and make sure your parents have locked the doors.”
Weeks prior, the Anchorage police warned how “criminal activity often increases late at night and during early morning hours.
APD wants to remind our citizens to be cautious when they are out during these hours, especially if they are in isolated areas like our parks, bike trails or unoccupied streets. If you plan to be out late at night, make sure you travel with several friends and not alone.”
Mind you, not one friend shall you travel with, but “several friends.” Because people are going down in twos.
Mayor Berkowitz also noted this about any neighborhood that wants to increased police protection: “If any community is ready to specially assess itself, I’m sure there’s a way that could happen,” Berkowitz said.
Uh, that would be illegal. It would mean people in South Anchorage could assess themselves more and pull some police out of Mountain View to protect them.
QUESTIONS FOR THE MAYOR
Has the FBI been brought in to investigate the three double homicides?
What were the types of weapons used in the double homicides? Guns? Knives?
Was there evidence left behind at the scene to help investigators?
Is it believed a serial killer is at work on Anchorage trails at night?
Are trail watchers going to be safe unarmed, when they don’t know what kind of threat they face? Will they be deployed at night, when the killings have taken place
Regarding the recently released police sketch of a “person of interest” in another recent killing.The FBI is said to be involved. Is this person a suspect in the other murders?
From this morning’s Must Read Newsletter –The preliminary engineering work for the AK-LNG project is wrapping up. Consultants to the Alaska Legislature issued a report saying the project is uneconomical.
Like a gal giving a fake phone number to a bad blind date, the three remaining partners have backed away from AK-LNG, as Alaska’s governor has become their date from hell.
Dave Harbor knows how it’s going down: The expert, commenting on the gasline is not giving it good odds. Pat Race knows: The hippie cultural phenom of Juneau predicts the gasline is dead, so it must be so. Forbes Magazine agrees with Pat Race:Here’s theeulogy. John Hendrix gets out the defibrillator paddles: The newest cabinet member of the Walker Administration gave it his best at Resource Development Council. The video here.
Keith Meyer makes a shot on the goal: The new head of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. promises prosperity for Alaska with a gasline.
OUR TAKE — IT’S STILL OIL IN ALASKA
At the end of the day, oil fuels Alaska’s public employees and the state’s economy. All credible experts point to the fact that gas from Alaska is just not competitive for the foreseeable future.
Alaska should work on oil, not gas, they argue. Case in point, Armstrong Energy just found one of the largest oil discoveries in North Slope history, enough to put 120,000 barrels into the Trans Alaska Pipeline System every year for the next, say, 25 years.
That will pump $1.2 billion per year into our state budget. Per year.
Then there’s Liberty, Pikka Unit-Nanushuk, Oooguruk and Nikaichuq — all oil plays that resulted from good tax policy. Oil that brings taxes and royalties.
But Gov. Bill Walker has waved the white flag on oil. He has given up.
Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, a year ago at the GLACIER conference, pleaded for help to save Alaska from its oil economy:
“We need help to continue, yes in the waning days of the petroleum era, to make the transition from petroleum to a new world built upon renewable energy. We will get there, we need your help. We need to develop Alaska’s resources, a need to do it in a way that recognizes the impact upon the Arctic and the consequences of ill-devised action that would occur and impact climate change if we are not smart and we are not resilient.”
The Walker Administration has thrown the state into a tailspin economically in Walker’s singular quest for a gasline that the oil companies are saying is uneconomical.
Walker says the State won’t need to make money like private sector companies need to make money…But will the State actually lose its shirt on his state-owned gasline project?
Guess who got one of the highest ratings in the latest Legislative Effectiveness Scores”? Here are the top five most effective Republican representatives, according to the nonpartisan score-keepers:According to the Washington Post, Don Young continues to be “a strong advocate for Alaska, just as he has in previous Congresses. Alaska is the beneficiary of almost all of the more than 40 bills that he has introduced into the 114th Congress.
“Two of the bills, H.R. 336 and H.R. 1335, have already passed the House and have been referred to the relevant Senate committees for consideration. Several others have been the focus of various committee and subcommittee markups and hearings.”
IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY
Roll Call, the newspaper, quoted Anchorage political strategist Jim Lottsfeldt as a close adviser to Mark Begich who gives Begich a 40 percent chance at launching a write-in campaign against U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski.
The question arose: Does Super Lobbyist Begich even qualify as an Alaska resident, seeing as he lives back in the Beltway? Does he claim Alaska residency based on the Begich name? That looks to be a soft spot some Murkowski supporter will drive a stake in. But there are so many soft spots, including where he will get the money.
ALASKA UNEMPLOYMENT TICKS UP
Alaska’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate trended upward to 6.8 percent in August, a bit higher than the previous month. How does it compare to August of 2015? It was 6.6 percent a year ago. The 2015 unemployment average was 6.5 percent.
CRYSTAL SERENITY DOCKS IN BIG APPLE
The approximate 33-day voyage of the Crystal Serenity over the Arctic Ocean, from Alaska to New York, has come to an end. They saw polar bears. They saw ice floes. They saw a whole lot of nothing for days on end.
If you want to try it yourself, the next trip leaves Anchorage Aug. 16, 2017, and will set you back at least $21,000. Here’s the bridge-cam photo for today, as the ship docked in New York City. No polar bears were harmed in this voyage, which went off swimmingly.
IN TRUMP SHE TRUSTS
Author, lawyer, and no-holds-barred commentator Ann Coulter is in Anchorage for her In Trump We Trust book launch, speaking tonight at the Egan Center.
And why might you want to hear what Coulter has to say about Donald Trump?
Coulter has been a Trump supporter from the beginning — and now the polls are proving her right; several polls show Donald Trump now trending for the win.
Check out what poll analyst Nate Silver has to say: Hillary supporters might be worried, if only for this reason.
SPEAKING OF WINNERS…
The event of the coming week in support of a candidate who has Sen. Bill Wielechowski worried enough to file a headline-grabbing lawsuit against the governor. Do attend:
Three former allies of Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, at least two of whom were vocal backers of his campaign in 2014, have joined in a lawsuit against him.
The lawsuit is over the governor’s veto of the funding for more than half of what Alaskans would have received in their Permanent Fund dividends.
Former State Senate Presidents Clem Tillion and Rick Halford joined current Senator Bill Wielechowski in the lawsuit, which says the governor does not have the authority to take the PFD, as Alaskans fondly refer to it.
The cast of characters make for bipartisan bedfellows:
RICK HALFORD
Rick Halford
Serving on the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation board is former state Sen. Rick Halford. He was appointed to the AGDC seat by Gov. Walker last year. His term expired on Sept. 13.
Halford assumes he would not be reappointed and told ADN reporter Nat Herz he will not seek reappointment. It matters not to him, as he told Herz, because the gasline is dead for now anyway.
Halford, of Dillingham and Eagle River, served 24 years in the Alaska Legislature, retiring as Senate President in 2003.
Although he is a Republican, Halford was a force behind the election of Walker, endorsing him every step of the way. In 2014, Halford wrote: “He is smart enough to listen and tough enough to lead.”
CLEM TILLION
Clem Tillion
Clem Tillion, 91, was a senator back in the days when the Permanent Fund was being created. A fisherman from Halibut Cove, Tillion served seven terms in the Alaska House and two terms in the Senate. He was a close ally and friend of Gov. Jay Hammond and is credited with helping Hammond and others design the Alaska Permanent Fund.
Another Republican, Tillion’s son-in-law, Sam Cotten, is in the Walker Cabinet as commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game. Cotten is a Democrat and former legislator himself.
Wielechowski is a labor lawyer in Anchorage who has served in the Alaska Senate since 2007, as part of the Democratic minority. He is a reliable vote against every bill sponsored by a Republican.
In fact, this lawsuit may be the only bipartisan thing Wielechowski has ever done. As he faces re-election, he has chosen the careful timing of a lawyer-candidate, when rolling out the lawsuit against the governor, whom he supported in the 2014 election.
This gets him votes, as there’s little doubt the PFD will be the public discussion leading up to the election.
THE GOVERNOR BITES BACK
Within a couple of hours of the lawsuit being filed before the courts closed at noon, Gov. Bill Walker had struck back:
“As most Alaskans realize, and as stated by the legislature’s own financial advisor, our state is in the midst of the gravest financial crisis in our history,” he said, before blaming his own failure to veto spending on the Alaska Legislature.
“It is truly unfortunate that our legislature failed to pass a sustainable fiscal plan, like the one we submitted this past year, to protect and grow the permanent fund dividend program. Instead, this continued lack of action will result in the elimination of the PFD program in just a few years,” his press release stated.
He then went on to explain how it was he chose to take $1,100 from every man, woman, and child in Alaska:
“This year’s PFD is close to the historical average paid to every eligible Alaskan since 1982. It was set at a level that could be sustained as part of a larger fiscal solution—to ensure a PFD program continues for generations to come. ”
Walker then piled on the criticism on Wielechowski:
“I’m disappointed that an incumbent legislator who failed to work towards a solution to our fiscal crisis—a solution that would protect the long-term viability of the PFD—has decided instead to pursue this lawsuit eight weeks prior to his re-election bid. [emphasis ours]. This suit detracts from the real issue: solving Alaska’s fiscal crisis so we can then begin to grow Alaska.”
He then went on to criticize elder statesman Tillion for penning an opinion piece in the Alaska Dispatch News, even though Tillion had written the same thing back in December, 2015.
Walker’s statement said:
“Today, a former legislator compared our current situation to that in the 1990s. That’s misleading. In the 1990s, we had approximately 2 million barrels of oil a day going through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). Today, the TAPS throughput is about a half-million barrels a day. That’s a huge difference in the potential for an economic rebound. In the 1990s, we were not facing a $3.2 billion deficit and drawing down on our savings at a rate of $12 million a day. Relying on a 1990s-type rebound is very, very risky.”
Walker was silent on the matter of Halford, who had brought him to the dance in the first place.
Those who know Halford as a senator recall his ability to see an outcome long before anyone else does. As he was able to predict that Walker would win in 2014, he likely knows how this lawsuit will end. And so does Governor Walker.
Representative Ben Nageak, and attorneys Tim McKeever and Stacey Stone have filed a challenge to the Primary election results that were certified in District 40, the farthest north region of the state.
Rep. Nageak lost by eight votes to challenger Dean Westlake in the Democrat primary, which was found to be fraught with enough irregularities to have influence the outcome.
The challenge is based on several points:
SHUNGNAK DOUBLE VOTING
There were 50 votes cast in Shungnak – all 50 voters were allowed to vote both primary ballots — Republican and Democrat. The state acknowledged this as an error. The Division of Elections and the lieutenant governor took the position that since the House race was only on one ballot, no one voted twice and so this, while illegal, was ok.
However, the suit contends that the public has no way to know how many people would have chosen the Democrat (ADL) ballot if they had to choose, as they are everywhere else in the state. By choosing one ballot over another, they would either get to vote in the US Senate and House races or else the State House race, but not both during the primary. The Republican ballot is a closed ballot that is available to Republicans, undeclareds, and nonpartisans. This ballot has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
KIVALINA
Must Read Alaska has learned that in Kivalina seven voters insisted they were entitled to both ballots and they were given both but were required to file questioned ballots.
Both the regional review board and the state review board declined to count those seven double ballots. However during the recount the decision was made by the Director of the Division of Elections.
Four of those votes went to Westlake and 1 to Nageak.
Unlike Shungnak where the poll workers apparently made the mistake, in Kivalina the poll workers correctly thought it was wrong to vote both ballots, but the voters insisted, and the election workers relented.
Because the voters insisted on doing something illegal, the legality of those ballots is in question.
BROWERVILLE
Voters who were registered Republican were required to vote questioned ballots if they asked to vote the open-ADL primary ballot.
Luke Welles, a resident of District 40, also reported issues with voting and testified at a legislative hearing with details about having to argue at length with election officials in order to be allowed to vote just the open-ADL ballot.
Welles eventually cast the open-ADL ballot. His wife was forced to vote a questioned ballot, also open-ADL.
It’s possible some voters may have declined to vote the open-ADL ballot because of the extra hassle of filling out the paperwork for a questioned ballot.
BETTLES
Richard Thorne of Bettles was greeted by the election officials with the comment, “Oh here is Rick the Republican!”
He was not given the choice of a Democrat ballot. He was given a Republican ballot.This problem may have happened in other locations.
BUCKLAND
Several problems arose regarding special needs voters and the “personal representative” voting method. Only one voter indicated a party preference but all received the Democrat ballot in spite of the fact that some of these voters are non-declared and eligible to vote an R ballot.
The date the ballots were issued was not listed, likewise the date/time the ballots were returned was not listed.
The date of the signature by the representative was obscured on 11 out of the 12 ballots.
These ballots did not arrive in Nome until six days after the election.
It appears one of the official election workers took it upon herself to go out to find voters and allowed them to vote a special needs ballot without the voter requesting it. As a result, Buckland had more special needs ballots cast than Palmer or Wasilla, in spite of the population differences and the vastly greater number of aged people in Palmer-Wasilla, due to nursing homes in the area.
Buckland’s ballot box stuffing with personal representative ballots is enough by itself to contest the election, because if these are all discarded, then Nageak wins by 1.5 votes using the proportional method, i.e. Westake got 79.629% of the Buckland votes and that amounts to 9.5555555 of the special needs ballots. If the state allowed the one special need ballot collected by a non-election worker, Nageak wins by .759 votes.
NOME
During the regional absentee and questioned ballot review board session, four absentee ballots were misplaced. They may have been commingled with the questioned ballots and could not be retrieved. Election workers in Nome apparently consulted with their colleagues in Juneau outside the presence of the observers. They returned to the observers and stated that had been instructed to randomly select four questioned ballots and count them as absentee ballots.
Thus, election workers took ballots that were not necessarily legal to be voted and counted them as if valid, which is inappropriate.
WILLIAM OVIOK
William Oviok was allowed to vote in Barrow. It’s unknown if he is eligible, given he has a felony conviction and the fact that he was apparently not legal to vote in the mayoral election just a few weeks before.
However, he is a registered Democrat, but the poll workers refused to give him an open-ADL ballot. A Division of Elections employee later sent him an email apologizing for this and acknowledging that he should have been allowed to vote an open-ADL ballot.
MISTAKES ADD UP TO PATTERN
The law provides that the election is presumed valid and that mistakes by election personnel should not disenfranchise voters.
However some mistakes by voters and errors by election workers involved mandatory provisions of law and enough votes were involved that the outcome of the election could be changed.
OPTIONS
Today, the complainants asked the Alaska Supreme Court to review the process of the recount. They asked a Superior Court judge to review the process of the election.
In either case the courts could:
Order the count be changed in some way, by tossing out certain ballots.
Find the election was so flawed that a new election is necessary. If this option is selected it is likely the new election would be held Nov. 8.
None of the specific issues in the complaint has been litigated in Alaska before, according to our research. But there are clear violations of the law involved in most of the above problems. The problems were widespread, in several precincts, and involved enough ballots to change the outcome of the election.
Our original reporting on Aug. 18 peeled back the covers on voting problems in District 40. Other stories on Must Read Alaska can be found in the search box with keyword: election.
According to the Washington Post, Don Young continues to be “a strong advocate for Alaska, just as he has 
Author, lawyer, and no-holds-barred commentator Ann Coulter is in Anchorage for her In Trump We Trust book launch, speaking tonight at the Egan Center.
