Assembly Delays Independent Investigation – Election Commission Begins Investigation of Self (UPDATED)

More Questions Than Answers

As we march ahead, trying to make sense of the Anchorage Municipal election of April 3, and as more citizens step forward to testify, we find that the questions and concerns have multiplied. Any one of several factors is cause for concern: Polling places running out of ballots, voters being turned away from their polling places, disenfranchisement of unknown numbers of voters, deliberate misinformation from a conservative group to cause chaos at the polls, naive confidence by the Election Commissioner regarding equipment widely known to be problematic, instructions to ignore or replace broken security seals on voting machines by the Deputy Clerk, long delays at polling places when requesting supplies, the inability of polling places to contact the Municipal Clerk’s office, the chain of custody of ballots, unsecured ballots, voting machine “sleepovers” in private homes, voters placing questioned ballots directly into the AccuVote machines, and the lack of confidence by the general public in the veracity, and integrity of the vote.

The Art of Self-Investigation and Newest Concerns The Election Commission continues to do their work of trying to make the best of tallying the votes that were actually cast, and scrapping votes that were cast illegitimately by voters outside of the Municipality of Anchroage, or voters who were not registered to vote at least 30 days before the election. They have been instructed by (former) Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander to take as much time as they need to make sure that this work is done as accurately as possible.

However, in no way should we believe that this entity has the resources or capability to perform the kind of forensic audit of what happened this time, or recommend the actions for future elections that is so obviously required. Their job is critical, but by no means is it comprehensive. That’s why this latest bit of news is extremely disturbing.

Election Commissioner Gwen Matthew – called known inadequate and insecure voting equipment”utterly amazing” and “totally accurate.”

ELECTION COMMISSION NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING

The Municipality of Anchorage Election Commission will hold a Special Meeting, open to the public, on Saturday, April 21, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. at the Loussac Library Wilda Marston Theatre, 3600 Denali Street. The meeting will continue on Monday, April 23, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. at City Hall, 632 W. 6th Avenue in Room 830 — the Mayor’s Conference Room on the 8th Floor.

The purpose of the Special Meeting is to interview people who were unable to vote in the April 3rd election due to ballot shortages, had difficulty voting, or have personal evidence of irregularities or failures in the election process. The Election Commission may also use this time to interview election officials and Clerk’s Office staff.

Election Commission Members will be available for individual interviews on Saturday until to 4:00 p.m. and again on Monday, April 23, 2012 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The Commission intends to work individually to facilitate interviewing people in a timely manner. People should be prepared to identify themselves sufficiently to compare their information with the voter register and precinct information.

This Special Meeting will be the only opportunity to be interviewed by the Election Commission in person. People unable to attend may still email to Election2012@muni.org. In the e-mail, please provide your full name, precinct name or number, and identify if you voted, or that you were unable to vote. If you were unable to vote, please state why. Your e-mails will be provided to the Commission.

Ernie Hall Chair of the Assembly

Incoming Chairman Ernie Hall

The new Chair of the Assembly seems to think it’s a wise idea to allow the Elections Commission to play investigator, and delve into its own incompetence (at best) and malfeasance (at worst).  The first of these hastily called meetings is less than 48 hours away, and isn’t even up on the muni.org website yet. Both of these meetings will happen before the next Assembly meeting, and the only ones called to testify are those who had a problem voting. The public at large has still not been specifically invited to testify about their concerns. They’ve so far had to wait until the very end of Assembly meetings, sometimes waiting for hours, to make testimony in the time slot designated for general public comment. “Don’t worry,” says the Election Commission,”We’ll investigate us, and let you know if we find anything. And if we do, we’ll tell you what to do about us. And if any of us should be fired. Stay tuned.”

Why an Independent Counsel, or Commission?

An independent counsel has been called for by the ACLU, the NAACP, the Municipal Clerk, poll workers, and voters, to investigate potential malfeasance, and election fraud. This is incredibly serious business. In light of recent allegations that have come to light, the election and the entire voting system in Anchorage should be examined by not just one independent individual, (and certainly not by a Commission that may be part of the problem) but by a blue-ribbon commission. Ideally, the blue ribbon commission should be composed of a member appointed by the Election Commission, one appointed by the Clerk, and at least two appointed by citizen advocates like the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, NOW, AKPIRG or the NAACP.

The AccuVote Isn’t – Decertify Diebold

It will not take much convincing for anyone willing to do some basic research that our current electronic scanners, the Diebold AccuVote system, must go. The machines were decommissioned in California, after independent forensic tests showed them to be unreliable, inaccurate and extremely easy to tamper with. So, what to do? In a city like Anchorage, and a state like Alaska, huge numbers of voters are not a problem. Our low population number makes it simple and quick to utilize the most efficient, accurate, and inexpensive system of vote counting available – a hand count of paper ballots done at the precinct level. It eliminates hardware glitches that engender suspicion with voters and poll workers, it eliminates the easy ability for widespread vote tampering, it ensures the chain of custody of the ballots between the closing of the polls and the tallying of the vote, it eliminates the need for expensive and cumbersome equipment, and it creates a clear and transparent process of which the voters can feel confident. All it takes is a fresh crew of vote counters to show up at the polls on election night at 8:00 when the polls close. It is easy to find counters, because volunteers can have a day job, go home, have dinner, and then come to the polls. Many citizens wish they could participate, and engage in election volunteering as a civic duty, but schedules prevent this. The count is done right at the precinct, before the ballots move. The best method is the sort-and-stack. The ballots are stacked for each set of candidates, or ballot proposition. In other words, Prop 1 yes votes go in one stack, and Prop 1 no votes would go in another. Then the ballots are simply counted by stack. The process is repeated for each one. It’s not rocket science. Sometimes the most complex problems, have the simplest solutions.

Success Outside

The good news is that hand counting is being done elsewhere, and successfully. Columbia County, New York hand counts all of their ballots every time.  There are two Election Commissioners, one Republican and one Democrat. Both refuse to utilize vote counts from a machine. They proudly hand count ballots because they understand that it is the most effective method. Hand counts can be done gradually, starting off with a handful of precincts, and when procedures are in place, and poll workers and voters see first-hand the simplicity of and confidence in the vote count, it can be expanded to all precincts. In the meantime, the Anchorage Assembly has not yet officially stated that they will call for a special investigator, although indications seemed to point that way.

They also have not stated when it will happen, but are waiting for the Election Commission to finish their work. Their work should consist of tallying the vote that was cast, not playing special investigator. This should cause even more concern because the more time passes between the close of the polls on election night, and the beginning of an investigation, the less accurate it will be. We can’t be sure that people will volunteer to show up on a Saturday with less than 48 hours notice. We can’t be sure they all know about the meeting in the first place.

An independent investigator can hunt the people down s/he wants to talk to, not just throw out a short-notice invitation and assume it will draw everyone who needs to be questioned. The memories of those who will be questioned later will fade, and the security and chain of custody of the ballots (both used, and unused) becomes less certain.

In addition, Chair Ossiander indicated in her opening statements (see below) that the Commission, in addition to their regular duties, wants to offer a report that also contains “recommendations and remarks” about the election. It’s uncertain what they will be, but by no means should recommendations be accepted from this Commission. They should certainly be forwarded to an individual or commission appointed with the duties of the investigation, but not accepted outright.

The fact that the Commissioner herself was so willfully unfamiliar with the most basic knowledge of the integrity and accuracy of the machines that she lauded, is reason enough to need an objective opinion. Ossiander also said that the Commisson should be ready to report by April 24. The next step, she told the Assembly, is the certification of the vote. NO certification should happen unless there is a ruling that all ballots – used and unused – be retained until well after any independent investigation is complete. Normal policy is to destroy the ballots 30 days after the election is certified, thus losing “the paper trail” that is so critical in this process. What you can do, is ask the Assembly for the following things:

• Immediately hire an independent investigator, ideally as part of a blue-ribbon commission to get to the bottom of what happened in this election, and make recommendations for future elections.
• The Election Commission should continue their work of counting the vote. No recommendations should be accepted by the Assembly, but should be passed to an independent investigator. No entity investigating itself is credible.
• Decertify the Diebold AccuVote system, as California has done, because it has already been proven to be unreliable and easily tampered with. If necessary, call a special meeting to discuss only this. Experts from around the country are available to give testimony.
• Implement an investigation of negligence, malfeasance, and potential criminal election fraud, using the evidence we have.
• Begin the process of converting Anchorage to the most accurate, least costly, and most efficient system of ballot count – a full hand count at the precinct level for all elections.

Below is some, but not all of the testimony given at the Assembly meeting on Tuesday, April 17th. Emphasis is mine.

**************UPDATE***************

Just announced: Assembly Chair Ernie Hall expects by the middle of next week to announce the appointment of an independent investigator to review the April 3rd Municipal election process. Additionally, Chair Hall plans to have outside counsel review the opinion of Municipal Attorney Dennis Wheeler on the legal standards for certifying an election. A special meeting of the Anchorage Assembly will be held at 5:00pm Thursday, May 3 at the Assembly chambers at the Loussac Library for the Assembly to accept the Election Commission’s report and to take action on certification of the April 3rd election.

Thank you to everyone who has not let up, and who called and emailed today expressing your concern. This is how we accomplish things.  And don’t stop now. A commission is better than an individual, and we must insist that the scope of the investigation is broad. 

Opening remarks by Outgoing Chair Debbie Ossiander

As I’m sure many of you have guessed, there will not be a certification vote, as originally we had planned. The Elections Commission is still working. They anticipate finishing their count by Friday, but they also want to give us a report that includes more than just a count. I talked to them on Monday, and they said that they want to give us some recommendations and remarks.

At this time, I’m tentatively assuming that that will be ready for the 24th. I have assured them that they should take all the time they need to do this correctly, and thoroughly, and to let us know if there is anything we can do to assist the process. My sense is that our recent work session was productive. I believe that we were able to answer some questions, but we certainly opened up to others… At this point, it’s my sense that many precincts were given insufficient ballot numbers, and that there were problems and challenges with our process for late delivery of ballots.

I also believe that our election manual needs work. Over the past week, I’ve had some very valuable conversations with precinct workers, and I’ve come to the belief that there is some value in having an independent investigator to help us clarify these kinds of issues a little more clearly. I did note, going back and looking at the ’89 situation, that at that time the Election Commission was tasked with interviewing and getting further reports from precinct workers, which was interesting. At that time they had a greater number of people who came forward and said they had not been able to vote than we currently have.

Mr. Hall and I have been discussing names, and process, for an independent investigator, and so I plan on continuing to speak up and bring forth concerns, or issues that I have that such an investigation would warrant. And I urge other Assembly members to do the same.

I do want to note, too, for those of you who asked, we did receive at our work session a binder, with some materials inside, and those materials have now been placed on the web. Unfortunately, as many of you noted, our webpage was down today… We expect the web page up shortly. So, those of you who contacted me, requestig an agenda for tonight – our apologies. We’re working on it. The next immediate step in the election review process before this body is certainly going to be that certification vote, and so I’m going to ask all members – urge all members – to please think about what additional information we each individually need in order to make a decision about that, and to submit any additional questions or information requests to the Chair so that the questions can be furrowed (?) out to the appropriate person. Testimony by Jeff Mittman, Executive Director, Alaska ACLU

I presented to the Clerk a sworn affidavit. I appreciate the Assembly’s work session. I appreciate the indications that we’re moving forward with an independent investigator. The ACLU is gravely concerned with a few things, namely 1) That you have not yet appointed an investigator. As the Assembly is aware, for two weeks we have been working on obtaining evidence. This is not an easy or quick process. It takes time to contact individuals, it takes time to take their statements and interview them, it takes time to produce those in writing and get them sworn, and to accept the evidentiary process.

I presented to you another voter who went to Nunaka Valley Elementary School at 6:15, was told to come back in 15 minutes when there would be ballots. She was turned away because there were no ballots. She came back half an hour later, at 6:45, and she was told there were no more ballots, and that they would be getting none. This seems to contradict some indications of what was stated the last work session. She left Nunaka Elementary School and went to the Lutheran church, was informed there were no ballots at the Lutheran church and was told to try UAA. She wanted to try to find a closer location so she would not miss her opportunity to vote, went to Chester Valley which had no ballots, and then went to College Gate, which had no ballots. This voter was sworn to this statement before a notary that four polling locations she could not vote – they had no ballots. Finally, she was told to go to UAA, she got there at 8:05, and it was too late. She could not vote.

I will call another affidavit before the Assembly. Someone went to Bayshore at 6pm, was told there were no ballots and that they were not getting any. She went to Mears Jr. High, and when she got out of her car she was told people were leaving. “The line at Mears was out the front door and down the sidewalk. In line, some people told me they were supposed to go to Klatt Elementary. Finally a poll worker came out. He said they only had a few ballots left, so if Mears is not our regular polling place, we’d have to go to UAA.” At about 7:30 they were told they were totally out of ballots, and no one would be able to vote there – that they would have to go to the Rent-A-Car at the airport, and would have to be there by 8pm, which was impossible.

We were further troubled by communications at the Friday work session that “only 17 people had informed that they were unable to vote.” We have, apparently, notes from the poll worker at Klatt Elementary School that the election staff turned away voters for two hours with notes indicating that over 150 voters were turned away. We are very concerned. The level of disenfranchisement that occurred two weeks ago was not 17, it’s not the 150 people that contacted the ACLU. We do not know the number.

It is past time. I appreciate the Assembly, and many of you have reached out to me, I understand we’re moving forward. My concern is that we cannot certify an election if (inaudible)… If 150 people at 50 ballot precinct locations each, are unable to vote, that’s 7,500 voters. Before we certify, we need to know the level of disenfranchisement.

Testimony of Elstun Lauesen

I was a little concerned, Mr. Chairman when I heard you say that we’re going to have an independent investigation to take a look at the processes and try to put in place – try to correct the existing procedures – almost as if this is a housekeeping matter, and I want to urge you to consider that this is much more than just housekeeping.

And, in fact, I would like you to consider this as potentially a crime investigation, and suggest that you have a forensic investigation, rather than simply a housekeeping investigation. I know the Assembly has authorized forensic audits before, (Mr. Starr, through the Chair), and I hope that you can see clear to do something here, because the level of penetration and analysis in the investigation is critical – not just hiring an independent investigator, but making sure that scope of services is going to get the job done to the point we can all be assured as we cast our ballot, it will be counted.

Testimony of Wanda Green, President Alaska NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (the NAACP) is non-partisan, civil rights organization. Our mission is to form any kind of discrimination, but it also is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality for all citizens. Voting in an election is one of the most important things that we do in our lives. It gives us the opportunity to be heard, and to express our desires regardless of who we are, our origin, our beliefs, or our political affiliation.

One commonality that binds us is our right to to vote. However, voting is much more than just a writing a ballot and placing it in a box. We all know that is just part of the process. The other part is making sure that every single vote is counted. You cannot have one half of the process, and declare a successful election. What can be declared is an election that is suspect. April 3rd, 2012’s election is nothing short of disturbing. Reports of not having enough ballots, people being turned away at the polls, people not being able to vote, faulty machinery, inaccurate ballot counts, are just simply unacceptable in this day and age, in 2012.

There are many in the community questioning the validity of this election. For the NAACP in particular, easy access to the ballot box, the assurance that every ballot counts, and the outcome of the election must be trusted in order for it to be a true democracy. If we have legitimate (and let me repeat that), if we have legitimate grounds to seriously wonder about any of these things, then it infringes upon our civil rights, and the results of any election are meaningless. It is because of the aforementioned concerns that the NAACP Anchorage is calling for an independent investigation.

Testimony of Linda Kellen Biegel

You have all the evidence you need that there needs to be an independent investigation…out of the mouth of Deputy Municipal Clerk Jacqueline Duke. From a story by election researcher, Brad Friedman. Duke confirmed to me that she had instructed poll workers not to worry if security seals on memory cards are found broken when setting up machines on Election Day. “They come sealed in the Accuvote cases and often times in transit they bust off because they’re the flimsiest pieces of plastic ever,” she told me. Sometimes that leads poll workers to “freak out.”

Perhaps they would “freak out” because this was in DIRECT CONFLICT with the instructions in the official Municipality of Anchorage Elections Manual; Accu-Vote Opening Instructions Step 5 #2: “Make sure the small silver bar covering the memory card on the front of the Accu-Vote Unit is sealed and the seal is not broken.” Just like there is no procedure listed for what to do if a precinct runs out of ballots, while the book makes it clear that it is a bad thing for the seals to be broken, there is no procedure on what to do if they are. Perhaps THAT is why folks would, in Duke’s words, “freak out” if a seal was broken.

Duke continues: She tells them that if they “open the case and can obviously tell the broken seal was from transport, you do not have to be worried. There are more in your supplies.” Duke instructs the workers to “re-seal it, and then run the zero report tape” to “confirm that your poll count is zero.” So, if that is a “legal” procedure, why isn’t it in writing in the Manual? Why do we not see anything about “extra seals” in the Manual? Could it be because it clearly contradicts the warning given poll workers, that the seal should not be broken? I don’t believe you need anything else to show you that an independent investigation is required. There is no need to wait on any report from the Anchorage Election Commission…this isn’t their bailiwick. If a defense attorney in a court of law can prove the chain of custody has been broken, they don’t have to prove anything happened with the evidence to have it thrown out, and even the case can be thrown out. In an election, using electronic machines, it’s every bit as important that the chain of custody not be broken for the memory cards as it is for the ballots, and we have proof that is not the case here in Anchorage.

Testimony of Barbara Gazaway, poll worker and Precinct Chair

My name is Barbara Gazaway. You probably received information from my husband, and an electronic file from us. We had started a petition online because of concerns that we had. I am a poll worker. I was a Chair in the last election, and I have been a Chair at our precinct for the last four elections. This election was a little bit different that the other ones I’ve worked. I’ll just give you some circumstances that I noted. We did have enough materials, but about mid-afternoon I noticed we were running short. I called the trouble shooter.

I was brought materials within a good period of time so that we had more than enough. What the trouble shooter related was that she was scurrying all around town. The geographic area that she was given to service was not compact. She had to travel to many different places, which made it difficult to get to various places on time. She did get to us quite timely, and she spent some time with us, helping us. And one of the issues that we had was the Diebold machine. When I was here for the work session, when I heard Ms. Matthew (Election Commissioner) say there had been no trouble with the Diebold machine, I was concerned, because we did have a lot of trouble with the Diebold machine.

We tried putting ballots in every which way and they spit back. That had never happened before. And also at the end of the evening, you put an ender card in the machine, which tells the machine that the voting’s over. Well, the machine wouldn’t take the card. I guess it just wanted to keep voting – it wanted to keep the ballots coming. But it just would not take the card. We tried every which way. There was even another card in the side of the AccuVote machine. We used the second card. It didn’t take the second card. We called the trouble shooter. She told us to pack up and get everything put away. She would be there as soon as she could. We had to wait. We had everything put away. We had to wait about 40 minutes before she came to take care of that machine.

When she did come, she at first didn’t know what to do. She pulled out a spray can and sprayed the opening to clear out the dust. She said, “Maybe it’s dusty.” Then we bumped the machine a couple of times, and finally she looked in her book, and the book said turn it off. So she turned it off, and turned it on, and we tried the ender card together and it went through. Then we packed up our things and got them to City Hall. I do want to say that I worked 15 ½ hours that day. I volunteered because I did not fill out the paperwork (required by ES&S).

Now, going to our petition – we have 700 people who have signed the petition. It’s an online petition, and if you have the time to look at the comments – about half the people that signed made comments, and they’re very concerning comments. Some of them tell of their experiences. There are some poll workers who have made comments – the experiences we have are quite compelling. I would really encourage you to take the time to look at those comments online.

Testimony of Melissa Green, Bent Alaska

I wasn’t intending to speak but the last comment made me have to get up and speak. It’s too simple to say we simply need a re-election. That may be what comes out of this – part of what comes out of this, but under no circumstances should this election that just happened just be pushed aside without investigation. Linda Kellen Biegel earlier brought up the statements made by Jacqueline Duke to Brad Friedman of The BradBlog, in which she instructed – she confirmed that she had instructed election workers to ignore broken seals of the memory cards on the machines. There was a real possibility that this election was tampered with, along with all the other problems this election had. A recount, a hand count of paper ballots needs to be done. We need to find out if there was tampering. We need to find out who the wrong-doers were, and if there were wrong-doers.

Comments

comments