Bringing in the Vote – Boxes of Democracy
Last night while everyone was grabbing drinks at Election Central – Anchorage’s hard-working poll workers were finishing their 16-hour long day. Carts piled with boxes, voting machines and ballots were dragged into City Hall to be processed.
The City Hall parking lot was packed, so much so that some of the workers had to pay for parking in neighboring lots (one charging $15). Water bottles and chocolates were handed out by volunteers and election officials who were waiting in a line that spiraled throughout the bottom floor of City Hall.
Wow. Alaska’s population is so small that I believe I could count all the ballots accurately myself (with another present to keep me honest), let alone a municipal election. Good luck, Anchorage.
2 questions about Moe vs. Hall: (1) is there an estimated time for tentative “final” tallies? (2) Would a write-in have standing to get a recount?
I don’t and wouldn’t know Alaska Commons from Adam’s off ox,but according to AC only 17.45% of registered Anchorage voters bothered to show up for the Muni election this year.
I think John wrote the piece that you’re quoting. Definitely trustworthy.
John did write the piece. Not acquainted with him,have heard the name before. Is he rilly in the backyard playing with the dog at this ungodly hour?
Alaska Commons and Mr Aronno are 2 of my favorite Alaskan treasures.
What is super pitiful about the low voter turnout is that the Municipality of Anchorage , MOA, is a home rule city and borough. Here our state Constitution was written to give maximum governmental powers to home rule entities of which the unifed city and boroughs are top of the heap. I live in one of these critters. We tax ourselves for property, sales tax, etc and we keep it all, unlike places where it goes to the state and dribbles back to counties, et al… or not.
We have a lot more say in how our communities are operated than the unorganized borough
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unorganized_Borough,_Alaska
(which is over half the state land wise ) and a lot more than many other places Outside.
Folks are actually as affected by local politics as state and federal politics – in some ways more affected- and it alternately breaks my heart and torches my shorts to see such low turnout in these local elections.
This has been exciting! All for Nick!
There were 2 uncounted precincts as of yesterday. Does anyone know why these would not have been counted with the rest?
http://www.muni.org/Departments/Assembly/Clerk/Elections/Pages/Frequentlyaskedquestions.aspx
It might be possible to go to this website and ask them directly.
Thanks, Mike.
I seem to recall that they leave a couple of random precincts out as a control to count by hand and crosscheck the numbers with the signatures, etc., but I’ll email them and ask.
Nothing is as reassuring as seeing an election bag with the name “Diebold” on it.
Well, let’s hope that none of the boxes get lost this time. One would think that there would be a more organized way of bringing in the votes.