Vote harvesting — a practice by special interest groups to gather ballots from people and turn them into polling stations — may be a factor in the District 1 House race between Democrat Kathryn Dodge and Republican Bart LeBon.
LeBon won that race by one vote, but Dodge has mounted a legal challenge of four votes, hoping to get a judge to overturn the decision of the Division of Elections.
Ballot harvesting is gaining more attention nationally. An investigation is now underway in North Carolina, where political operatives collected and may have stolen absentee ballots in a congressional race.
[Read: Absentee vote changes may have led to vote harvesting.]
A political operative in North Carolina employed a crew to go door to door urging people to request absentee ballots. Later, his team collected the ballots, purportedly to deliver them to election officials but handed them over to another political operative first, destroying the chain of custody for the ballots and introducing a possibility of corruption.
WHAT HAPPENED IN FAIRBANKS?
In Fairbanks, the League of Women Voters collaborated and coordinated with the Division of Elections to gather absentee ballots from the hospital and Pioneer Home, where elderly people reside.
Dozens of absentee ballots were delivered to the Fairbanks Elections Office by League of Women Voters volunteers.
That collaboration is in question, since the League is no longer acknowledged as a neutral group by conservatives.
In fact, conservative political advisers now counsel candidates to avoid debates being moderated by the League, because members from coast to coast have a record of supporting Democrats and harassing Republicans.
The Alaska Division of Elections still considers it a neutral group.
[Read: Florida League of Women Voters objects to governor’s appointment to schools post]
The Tanana Valley League of Women Voters has a record of supporting Democrats and their causes and opposing Republicans, as seen in their social media account:
