Yet again: Outside group and lawyer Kendall try to force more ballot changes in court

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File this story under “No good deed goes unpunished.”

The Division of Elections decided to mail out absentee ballot applications to all senior citizen Alaska voters this year. That act of charity has drawn a “not good enough” lawsuit from Anchorage attorney Scott Kendall, who was Gov. Bill Walker’s chief of staff.

Aided by an Outside liberal group called Equal Citizens, Kendall says it’s discriminatory to not mail out absentee ballot applications to all voters.

At present, the Division of Election is mailing absentee ballot applications to older Alaskans because of their increased risk for serious complications from the COVID-19 super virus.

The primary election early voting season begins in 16 days. The primary election ends on Aug. 18, when polls will be open across Alaska for in-person voting.

Two individuals stepped up to be the “harmed” plaintiffs: Democrat Camille Nelson of Kotzebue and Democrat Aleija Stover of Anchorage. They’re joined by the Disability Law Center of Alaska, Native Peoples Action Community Fund, and the Alaska Public Interest Research Group.

Nelson is a healthy young adult who recently organized a “I can’t breathe” march to protest the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of police. Stover is also a healthy young adult involved with student government at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Kendall is the left-leaning lawyer who is spearheading the effort to recall the governor of Alaska.

He is also the lead lawyer for a massive election voter initiative that voters will be asked to decide on in November: Alaskans for Better Elections, which would bring jungle primaries, the destruction of political parties, and ranked choice voting. Both Democrats and Republicans have opposed the ballot measure.

Alaska is a “no excuse” voting state, where anyone can request to receive an absentee ballot by mail; they do not need to give a reason. In 2020, voters can request an absentee ballot online for the first tine.

But Kendall and his plaintiffs say that there are too many barriers, and the state should just mail absentee ballot applications to everyone.

The costly plan would help achieve another goal that liberal groups are pushing — universal vote by mail.

Equal Citizens, which is funding the lawsuit, was founded by Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig. His group was involved in trying to get electors around the country to become “faithless electors” and not vote for President Donald Trump. The group’s effort fed into what became the most number of “faithless electors” to ever cast votes in a presidential election — seven. Prior to 2016, there had not been more than one faithless elector in a presidential election since 1948.

The plan went awry when more electors chose to be faithless against Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump; five flipped on Clinton and two on Trump.

Lessig represented some of the rogue electors, but this month the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld laws that punish or replace Electoral College delegates who refuse to cast their votes for a presidential candidate that they had pledged to support.

The group has also challenged the legality of the Electoral College.

Equal Citizens’ board members include Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners and the pollster for Joe Biden’s 2008 bid for president. Lake was the pollster for former Alaska Sen. Mark Begich and takes credit for helping Begich become “the first Senate candidate in Alaska to oust the incumbent in 50 years.” (The state was but 55 years old when Mark Begich and the Department of Justice’s and FBI’s corruption ensured that Sen. Ted Stevens would be retired from office.)

Other board members are Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration; Charles Kolb, founder of DisruptDC; Lawrence Lessig; and law professor Richard Painter.

11 COMMENTS

  1. I’m getting tired of these people who are supposedly victims of everything. the groups who joined this lawsuit need to be researched. i’m sure it’s lower 48 dem’s funding. when are they going to run out of money? can’t wait for november 3rd to get here

  2. This radical Lefty, Scott Kendall, apparently is a one-man wrecking machine. He effed-up Bill Walker’s chances for a second term. He defended the child molestor known as Byron Mallott. He is trying to recall Mike Dunleavy, with no success. And now he wants ranked voting and 100% ballot mailout. How did he even get accepted into law school, much less graduate? He sounds like a narcissistic loser.

  3. This will just be another deleted post but for the time it’s up______Outside money is in ALL of AK politics. Big Mike? Dan Sullivan? Lisa Murkowski? And let’s not forget our gift that keeps giving, dotty Don.

  4. Unless you are out of State for the military you should not get an Absentee ballot. That breeds election Fraud just ask Gabrielle Ledoux

    • Not true. Elderly Alaskans deserve to be spared a trip to the polls especially if they don’t drive or have a physical infirmity or it’s bad weather. That’s just respect!!

      • I’m an elderly Alaskan and if I wanted an absentee ballot I would have requested one! I am of sound mind and body and can think for myself.

    • I am 79 years old, I’ve requested absentee ballots for the last 10 years or longer. It’s easy to do if you can read, either from your own computer, a friend or a library. I wonder now if I will get two ballots or more, if they plan to send one to every senior citizen. Should be interesting.

  5. An act of charity, indeed. This story correctly reports that sending absentee ballots to senior citizens in Alaska so they will not be required to vote in person on Election Day is an “act of charity” by the state of Alaska. The government should stop being a charity when it concerns elections as well as countless other actions pushed by liberal democrats who want to destroy American. How many state employees work at the state division of elections? What are they paid to to a job that deals with a one day election every two years? A private company could be in charge of the election and it would probably cost less than $50,000. No mail or absentee ballots. Everyone would go to the Sullivan Arena to vote between 8 am and 5 pm. Two pieces of photo identification required. All voters should be expected to salute both the American flag and our state flag. Churches in the community would be invited to have their wonderful choirs sit in the arena and sing patriotic songs as people waited to vote. To cut down on the state’s expense, people would be charged a small amount (maybe $5 or $10) to purchase a ballot. Governor Dunleavy could impose some other rules to guarantee that people do NOT get another government handout by making the state of Alaska (actually, the hard working taxpayers) pick up 100% of the cost of the November election. With low oil prices and a huge drop in revenue, we must STOP the free stuff, the give always, the subsidies, the handouts, the welfare and all the rest. No more acts of charity. If you can’t afford it, you don’t get it, and that includes the cost of a ballot. We should not make it easy for the people who attack our great heritage, to vote for free. Keep America Great. As every veteran who has served this great country knows: Freedom is not free.

    • An excellent way to make sure only good white christian conservatives vote. Perhaps a MAGA hat could be required atire? I’m not sure how you can call this freedom. You say that liberals want to destroy America by making voting easier, but your idea of how elections should be run sound like something from Russia, not anything I would recognize as American.

  6. I got my application for the absentee ballot and promptly threw it in the trash. I’m 65, but truly do not help at the polls. Here in Tok, everybody knows everyone. People are indeed practicing social distancing and the elderly (myself … haha) do wear masks, at least in Three Bears. I guess my question is will my vote (in person) be nullified when my mail-in absentee ballot(s) show up at at the Division of Elections?

    • That’s a good point. I hope there’s a system in place to identify duplicate votes and reject them. I would think so since this isn’t the first time absentee ballots were an option.

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