Anchorage Moves to Certify, but There is Still Time
By Shannyn Moore
Remember standardized testing when you were a kid? You’d fill in those ovals with that Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 until your eyes bugged out. Schools provided “smart snacks” of carrots and apples on testing days.
Now imagine if they let you grade the tests.
I’m sure you’re good, honest folks, but what a horrible position to put you in. “Oh, I knew this answer, I just forgot.”
That’s basically what Anchorage Assembly chair Ernie Hall and the “election commission” appointed by Mayor Dan Sullivan, did this week.
They graded their own performance on a debacle of an election and said, “There’s nothing to see, nothing wrong, and we don’t want anyone else to grade us either!”
Ernie Hall is pushing for certification of one of the most troubled elections in recent history. Under his leadership, city officials are running out the clock and attempting to wear down the masses. The deputy clerk, Jacqueline Duke, has become the Katherine Harris of Anchorage. Her direction to poll workers to “ignore integrity seals” on the Diebold voting machine memory cards is egregious. What’s the point of integrity in an election when you direct workers to ignore it? Duke, a former Chili’s employee, is the “programmer” of those machines since the elimination of the election supervisor several years ago.
The same machines Alaska uses were decertified by California. California officials sued the manufacturer for selling them defective and easy-to-hack software. Hey, did we get ours on eBay? Our election commissioner, Gwen Matthews, told the Assembly: “Those are amazing machines — utterly amazing. It is impossible for them to go haywire. They are highly accurate. I think that I could almost say that they’re totally accurate. I’ve never found a discrepancy.”
Apparently she hasn’t ever Googled the machines to which we entrust our elections.
Just last month, a paper-ballot optical scan system at an election in Palm Beach County, Fla., made winners of several losing candidates. Two of three elections flipped after a hand count. The third showed the computer count off by 8 percent.
“You can get as ‘conspiracy theory’ as you want,” Deputy Municipal Clerk Duke told Brad Friedman, an election integrity watchdog who has been tracking elections nationally for years.
You’d have thought he’d asked her for Ranch Dressing on the side rather than whether she was aware of the decade-long issues with voting machines across the country.
Nothing to see. Move along.
Poor instructions encouraging security breaches at election-worker trainings, ballot shortages at more than half the precincts, broken chain-of-custody of ballots, Jim Minnery intentionally emailing false information to voters, pollster Dave Dittman stating he’d never seen polls so far off the actual results and a complete lack of accountability and transparency from the agency involved are just a few reasons not to certify this election.
Another red flag:
In 2007, Parks and Rec propositions passed. The defenders of the second-hand smoke ordinance and the School Bonds YES folks — progressive groups — helped pass the school bonds, the Parks and Rec bonds, and fend off the repeal of the second-hand smoke ordinance.
That was the last time a Parks and Rec bond passed, until now.
In 2008, school bonds and pro-pool people showed up and voted in three progressive assembly candidates, turning the political tide of that body.
In 2009, there were no school bonds. Parks and Rec Bonds were voted down by the same conservatives who voted for Sullivan.
In 2010, the public transit bond ended up under the bus and conservatives took control of the Assembly.
In 2011, school and Parks & Rec bonds lost again, by more than 60 percent. Now comes 2012 and suddenly Parks and Rec bonds pass by more than 60 percent? This is only possible if 12,564 NO on 5 voters voted in favor of Parks and Rec bonds. That is so unlikely as to be considered an anomaly. What is more likely is that the YES on 5 voters showed up in droves and voted for Parks and Rec bonds. I think the Proposition 3 vote reflects the actual profile of the Prop 5 results. How to account for the difference? That is precisely why we need an investigation despite the election commission’s finding to the contrary.
The paper ballots cast will be destroyed 30 days after certification. What’s wrong with a good ol’ fashioned hand count? I’ll tell you. Alaska has no way to audit unused ballots. There’s no way to do a complete audit.
Have I mentioned yet that not one issue on said ballot, or candidate, means a hill of beans to me when election integrity has clearly been breached?
Quick, get wet blankets. There’s still time. This vote must not be certified until there’s been an bona fide independent investigation.
Thousands of Anchorage residents are losing faith in the electoral system. If Ms. Duke and the commission have nothing to hide, they should welcome a chance to prove their integrity. Otherwise, I think they protest too much.
Shannyn ~ I just returned from several months outside. I can no longer find your radio program…or any progressive radio show personalities, for that matter. I believe you used to be on 1080AM, but now it’s a Fox Sports site. Have all the progressive voices ….like you, Thom Hartman, etc….. been silenced forever in the Anchorage area? I’d appreciate any help in locating your radio whereabouts.
Thanks!
Shannyn is on weekdays from 6-9pm on 1020KOAN am, and 95.5 fm. I join her for the 8-9 hour time slot on Thursdays.
You can reach the streaming at 1020koan.com by using the link in the upper right corner. AKM
See you Thursday…..
Me too. Should we all gather in a specific place?
Okay, Ms. Duke and company handed the Assembly an election that resembled a clown act. The pressure is now on them to simply push on by certifying the election on the grounds that the results are “probably” all right. Voting is the bedrock of our form of government. There is no reason why any American should have reasonable grounds to doubt the accuracy of the results. The Assembly needs to be pushed into doing the right thing. We need to investigate, figure out what happened and fix it. The only way this happens is if the Assembly feels the eyes of the public on them. Every Anchorage reader needs to start emailing and calling their assembly representative. Not once, not twice, but constantly until they act.
Take the information Shannyn presented and add the information about the machines and the software from the videos linked below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIAzCM3OYYc
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7262269533321066760
It is time to draw a line in the sand for the integrity of the voting process which is the cornerstone of our democratic process.
I haven’t weighed in on this issue before because frankly, I have no connection to Alaska and am even somewhat removed from U.S. politics in general. I won’t attempt to rehash the many issues that have emerged. The obvious fact is that this election was very hinkey, odd, off kilter. Another way to put it is gamed.
I try always to put things into the largest perspective possible, that is the nature of geology. So this is my take. This little exercise was a local test of what the right wing theives and liars will try to do on a national scale come November. If they get away with this kind of election fraud now, there will be no stopping them then. So this is a national, not a civic issue.
Therefore I think it is absolutely critical that this election NOT be certified. It is a national test case. Use trumpets, banners, megaphones, Repulican Election Fraud in Alaska. Send it to every news media outlet you can find. Just cite the facts, the case is about as obvious as can be. Make no embellishments that can be refuted.
The April 3rd election in Anchorage was a farce. Unless a new election is held, you will have to fight to retain your freedom and liberties on some other front, which I will not predict.
Good luck, go national, put the assembly on the block, win justice.
This election should NOT be certified. I have written to your officials to tell them so, from an island off the other edge of the continent. Anchorage deserves better. There must be an investigation of all the shenanigans in this election, AND a hand count of all ballots (not that there were ballots cast by everyone who wanted to vote). Jacqueline Duke can suck my taint.
Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error… They are the natural enemies of error and of error only… If [free enquiry] be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged. – Thomas Jefferson
This is the letter I sent to the assembly…wonder if they will bother to read it.
Greetings all,
It is with sadness that I send an email to the assembly that I firmly believe will have no impact. Having said that, I want to share with you the reasons I left Alaska.
My family settled on Kodiak Island in the late 1940s. My grand-father was featured in Bear Tales, my uncles were bush pilots and longshoreman. My grand-mother was known on the island for bringing lilies to Kodiak and for sharing laughter wherever she went. My grand-father and my uncle were decorated war heroes, WWII and Vietnam respectively, I served during the Haitian immigration in the late 80s as part of the USCG.
My husband and I moved our family out of Alaska a year ago. We could no longer tolerate the corruption in Alaska politics, the single minded greed that we saw evidenced everywhere. Gone were the days of neighbors helping neighbors, everyone seemed to have their hand out and a handshake would never be sufficient to do business. We watched in dismay when Dan Sullivan was paid for work before taking office, we were embarrassed by Palin’s display of ignorance on the national stage, and now, we have watched the current city election debacle in horror.
I cannot tell you how many of our co-workers and neighbors in WA have asked us what is wrong with Alaska? Why does dishonesty and unethical behavior appear to be celebrated? I have no explanation, this is not the Alaska I was proud to call home for 35+ years, it is the Alaska I could not allow my child to graduate high school in. It’s difficult to teach her that she can make a difference in the world when basic civics class issues such as the right to vote and to be heard are not held up as the Constitution guaranteed rights they are.
I don’t expect you to refrain from certifying this election, I suspect Anchorage politics are too far gone for doing the right thing to matter anymore but I wanted to be heard, even if only briefly.
Sad to hear you left. WA and AK are greats state to live in, I’ve lived in both, though, both have their fair share of dirty politicians. I suspect it is not just Anchorage politics that are corrupted, but US politics in general. Just because you no longer live here, you should post here at will anyway.
Anchorage moves to certify rwnj election officials are certifiably insane. I’ll vote for that. All I can offer is moral support and you have my deepest sympathies that so few people in Alaska care that their rights to free and fair elections are/have been hijacked by one party. Keep up the good fight and hopefully the populace will wake up and rebel.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/products/OS.html
Most of the voting machines have one day-one class seminars to teach people how to operate them. Not this beauty. Just minimal training-like ignore broken security strips to provide safe,accurate vote counts. Yessiree.
Anyone in Alaska should sign the petition because all statewide elections in Alaska are in jeopardy if the Anchorage election process cannot be trusted.
There is a new petition online calling for an investigation into evidence of these irregularities in the April 3rd, 2012 municipal election. We hereby request a full hand recount and full audit by an independent, non-partisan auditor of the April 3rd election including a reconciliation of Ballots Cast, Ballots Not Cast, and Questioned Ballots. Here is the link to the petition: http://signon.org/sign/full-hand-recount-and.fb8?source=s.fb&r_by=464805
Please show up for the special Assembly meeting this Thursday, May 3rd.@ 5:00 pm.
Signed!