Election Commissioner and Poll Worker Clash at Assembly Meeting – “That’s a lie!”
Tensions ran high at last night’s Assembly meeting, held to certify the badly botched Municipal election of April 3, 2012. The most intense moment came when Gwen Mathew, the Anchorage Election Commissioner, testified to the Assembly about the issue of broken security seals on the Diebold AccuVote machines on the day of the election. Mathew stated that she had received no report “at all, anywhere, of a seal being broken.” Wendy Isbell, a poll worker who had reported a broken seal multiple times in testimony, in writing, and by interview, to the Assembly, her precinct chair, and the Election Commission…
Not-so-special Assembly Meeting to Certify Election Fiasco
I’m sitting here at the “oh so” special meeting of the Anchorage Assembly which was called to certify the vote in the debacle formerly known as the Anchorage Municipal election, and it’s just like a Norman Rockwell painting. You know, the one with Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence. It was a month ago today when more than half of the precincts ran out of ballots, voters were turned away from the polls and sent on wild goose chases across the city in an attempt to vote. Sometimes they were able to, and sometimes they weren’t. Then we learned…
Levi Johnston Names Second Baby After Gun
We’d like to take a break from the trivial, frivolous matter of election integrity to delve deeply into a critical piece of developing news… Levi Johnston, the ex-fiance and baby daddy of former Dancing With the Stars celebrity Bristol Palin, and also former ex-almost-son-in-law of the former ex-half-governor and former-almost-second-in-command of these here United States, has gotten his current girlfriend Sunny Oglesby in the family way. Once again, the miracle of life began for Johnston on a camping trip, and once again, the pregnancy was unplanned. We do not know if wine coolers were involved this time. “We were out…
Mudflats Exclusive: Joe Miller Calls for Unity and Right of Citizens to Hand Count of Municipal Election
Former Alaskan Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller, has issued a statement to The Mudflats regarding the integrity of all elections, including the Alaska Senate race in 2010, and the recently held Anchorage Municipal election on April 3, 2012. The Mudflats strongly supported Joe Miller’s (and Scott McAdams’) right to a full hand count of paper ballots in the 2010 election, and for processes that were fair, laws that were consistent, and the ultimate right of citizens to have confidence in their electoral process. Miller has been a strong proponent of the accessibility of the public to a full…
Alaska Republican Convention Gets Paulverized
I don’t mean to gloat. I’m not generally a gloater. Schadenfreude is not my thing. But if I were going to gloat, now would be the time. Hypothetically. It seems… how shall I put this delicately… the the Alaska Republican Convention has turned into what their one time golden child Sarah Palin would call – “a cluster.” @AnchTeaParty on Twitter was kind enough to tweet live from the convention: 17:20 Still no results on election of #Alaska Party Chair. Saying we must leave the hotel ballroom now. 17:21 Chair just declared the convention adjourned with no vote to adjourn and no…
In My Alaska Garden — A Tale of Two Gardens
My friends at Anonymous Bloggers reminded me of something this week: I cannot think of a place where the internet and social media has made more of a difference in intra-state communication than Alaska. In a place this size (663,266 sq miles) where the majority of the land is not accessible by the road system, people who otherwise would rarely converse can carry on regular conversations and build relationships. Such is the Alaska gardening community. Thanks to AB and a friend’s Facebook page, I was tipped off to two fascinating garden projects separated by roughly 600 miles, as the raven…
Parnell Kills His Own Special Session. Blames Senate. Pouts.
Things aren’t going well for Sean Parnell. It all started last week when he called the legislature into special session to talk about three things, the most difficult and contentious of which was oil and gas production taxes. The governor sent his team to Juneau with a bill. For purposes of readability, we’ll refer to this bill (SB3001) as what it is metaphorically – a cow pie. Hatching the Idea What the governor wanted in this new “hybrid” bill was to give all kinds of breaks to big oil companies for fields that are already producing, and not so much…
Open Thread – Homage to a Governor
I thought it would be nice to have a little visual metaphor, an homage, if you will, to Governor Sean Parnell, and his “not so special” session, which came to an abrupt end today because the governor pulled the little whistle string and then drove that train right off the rails. (More to come on that) And here are some soothing strains to play out the legislature, particularly those rational and hard-working members of the Senate Resources Committee. Well done.