On Aug. 20, Alaska’s primary election day, two officials from Pilot Station will be in Bethel Superior Court to answer to charges of felony interference with elections in their tiny community at the edge of Alaska.
Acting Mayor Arthur Heckman Sr. and City Clerk Ruthie Borromeo are facing eight felony counts each for violations of election laws in October 2022 and 2023.
They are charged with offenses such as using force, threats, intimidation, and bribes to induce an election official to fail in his duties. They’re charged with delaying the mailing of required election materials and intentionally failing to perform their duties. They are charged with tampering with the election results.
Pilot Station, located on the Yukon River in Western Alaska, was incorporated in 1969 and is home to about 600 people. It’s a second-class city that has six city employees and is part of the Lower Yukon School District. It holds its regular elections the first Tuesday in October.
Pilot Station is a 95% Yup’ik village dependent upon a fishing and subsistence lifestyle. Former Mayor Nicky Myers died after falling through the ice on the Yukon River in on April 29, 2022, while on his snowmachine. Heckman Sr. became acting mayor and the first instance when these felonies occurred were in October of that year.
Pilot Station is represented in the Alaska Legislature by Sen. Donny Olson and Rep. Neal Foster.
May we assume that they were rigging elections just for themselves or for democrats in general?
Just for themselves
Any guesses as to the party affiliations of Heckman and Borromeo?
“Pilot Station is a 95% Yup’ik village dependent upon a fishing and subsistence lifestyle.”
That is contrary to my experience that 95% depend on government handouts.
Good to read that we are starting to see some election integrity action here in Alaska.
The modern subsistence lifestyle of Alaska villages do not consist of hunting, fishing, or trapping.
It involves collecting entitlements. Nothing more. Not one whit.
Pilot Station first, then…. Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and the others. Let’s hope they clean these elections up.