Posted by Jeanne Devon on May 10, 2012 · 28 Comments
There have been two positive developments recently regarding the audit and hand count of the recent fouled up municipal election. First, Ernie Hall apologized from his seat as Chair of the Assembly to Wendy Isbell for how she was treated in a recent Assembly meeting. Second, Jacqueline Duke, the unqualified Deputy Clerk, whose immediate past employer was Chili’s, and who somehow landed an $82,000 a year job fouling up elections, misinforming poll workers, and being utterly unpleasant to anyone who asked legitimate questions, was fired. Also by Chair Ernie Hall. But not everything is rosy. The following statement to the…
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Category Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Anchorage School Board, Bang it, Election 2012, Joe Miller, Lisa Murkowski, Municipality of Anchorage, Vitamin Democracy · Tags Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Municipal Election, Barbara Gruenstein, Diebold, Ernie Hall, Jacqueline Duke, Linda Kellen-Biegel, Mel Green
Posted by The Mudflats on May 5, 2012 · 18 Comments
Brad Friedman, an award-winning investigative journalist and expert on issues of election integrity, and the Diebold AccuVote system used in the recent Anchorage Municipal election, had comments about inaccuracies told by the Election Commissioner Gwen Mathew at last night’s meeting of the Assembly to certify the election. His outrage, and call for both Mathew, and Deputy Clerk Jacqueline Duke to be removed from their posts immediately, is a sentiment shared by a growing number of Anchorage residents who are becoming more informed regarding their ineptitude and outright misinformation. Here are Friedman’s comments after watching Mathew’s testimony at Thursdays Assembly meeting,…
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Category Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Anchorage School Board, Election 2012, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Skulduggery, Strategery · Tags Anchorage Election Commission, Anchorage Municipal Election, Brad Friedman, BradBlog, Diebold, Diebold Accuvote, Gwen Mathew
Posted by Jeanne Devon on May 4, 2012 · 29 Comments
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…
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Category ACLU, Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Anchorage School Board, Election 2012, Ethics, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Skulduggery, Vitamin Democracy · Tags Anchorage election, Anchorage Election Commission, Anchorage Municipal Election 2012, Debbie Ossiander, Diebold, Diebold Accuvote, Ernie Hall, Gwen Mathew, Jacqueline Duke, Paul Honeman, Wendy Isbell
Posted by Jeanne Devon on May 3, 2012 · 15 Comments
OK, everyone! Let’s hear it for the magnificent 10! These Anchorage voters decided to join forces, speak up and say no to this nightmare we call an election that the Election Commission seems to think is just fine. No investigation, they say. No malfeasance they say. No reckless disregard, they say. No reprimands or censures, they say. Move along apathetic public, move along. Yesterday, 10 Anchorage voters filed a recount application with the Municipal Clerk’s Office per Title 28 of the Municipal Code. The provision allows for ten qualified voters to file a recount application with the municipal clerk within…
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Category Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Anchorage School Board, Election 2012, Joe Miller, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Vitamin Democracy · Tags Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Municipal Election, Barbara Gazaway, Guadalupe Marroquin, Hal Gazaway, Jacqueline Duke, Joe W Miller, Kelly Walters, Linda Kellen-Biegel, Melissa S Green, Wendy Isbell
Posted by Jeanne Devon on May 2, 2012 · 8 Comments
Well respected former Anchorage Municipal Election Coordinator, Guadalupe Marroquin, recently wrote an open letter to members of the Anchorage Assembly regarding the recent badly botched Municipal election in Anchorage. Her excellent letter (edited for length) also ran in the Anchorage Daily News as a compass piece. Below is the full unedited text of her original letter. She has added her voice to that of former Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller in expressing the seriousness with which we should regard all issues of election integrity. And Ms. Marroquin has stated that in her expert opinion, this election needs a full…
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Category Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Anchorage School Board, Election 2012, Ethics, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage · Tags Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Election Commission, Anchorage Municipal Election, Barbara Gruenstein, Diebold, Guadalupe Marroquin, Jacqueline Duke
Posted by Jeanne Devon on May 1, 2012 · 38 Comments
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…
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Category Alaska, Alaska Senate Race, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Anchorage School Board, Election 2012, Ethics, Joe Miller, Municipality of Anchorage, Vitamin Democracy · Tags 2010 Alaska senate race, Diebold Accuvote, election integrity, Joe W Miller, Senate Joe Miller, Senate Scott McAdams, We the People
Posted by Jeanne Devon on April 25, 2012 · 22 Comments
~The security seal used to secure memory cards into Anchorage’s insecure Diebold AccuVote machines. Today in the Mayor’s conference room in City Hall, the Election Commission released the results of its report and recommendations, including revised numbers that say that 65 of 121 precincts ran out of ballots at some point during the day – a higher total than the 55 previously reported. The commission’s report came after two meetings with voters and poll workers who spoke one-on-one with an individual election commissioner. Mudflats contributor Elstun Lauesen was there today when Commission Chair Gwen Matthew read the entire report aloud….
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Category Anchorage Mayoral Race, Anchorage School Board, Election 2012, Ethics, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Skulduggery, Strategery · Tags Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Election Commission, Barbara Gruenstein, Diebold Accuvote, Ernie Hall, Gwen Matthew, Jacqueline Duke, Municipal election
Posted by Jeanne Devon on April 24, 2012 · 24 Comments
by Linda Kellen Biegel Jeanne did so much work on the first Election Commission Meeting, I felt like Monday was my turn to show up at the continuation. So, I packed my daughter in the car (if one can actually pack a 14-year-old) and headed out. We got there in time to beat the rush hour so we got a parking space in the City Hall lot (yay). I saw several media vehicles there. Morrigan kept the radio on in the car and I ran upstairs to Rm 830, the Mayor’s Conference Room. When I walked in, I saw Jacqueline…
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Category Alaska, Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Baffle it, Bang it, Election 2012, Municipality of Anchorage · Tags Anchorage Election Commission, Anchorage Municipal Election 2012, Barbara Gruenstein, Brad Friedman, Diebold memory card seals, Ernie Hall, Jacqueline Duke, Jeanne Devon, Linda Kellen-Biegel, Melissa Green
Posted by Jeanne Devon on April 23, 2012 · 28 Comments
~Mayor Dan Sullivan and Deputy Clerk Jacqueline Duke (R) celebrate on St. Patrick’s Day at McGinley’s Bar of which Sullivan is part owner A hastily-called Saturday meeting of the Election Commission was the scene of some interesting and dramatic revelations. Overheard comments that Assembly Chair Hall will be restructuring a vital committee to install Adam Trombley as Chair, and angry voters who were denied the right to speak to the entire body dominated the day – at least for me. The actual testimony , however, was not able to be heard by the public. Private testimony and “anticipated volume” The…
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Category Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Anchorage School Board, Bang it, Election 2012, Ethics, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Roll your eyes into it, Skulduggery, Strategery, Vitamin Democracy · Tags Adam Trombley, Anchorage vote, Diebold, Diebold Accuvote, Ernie Hall, Gwen Matthew, Harriet Drummond, Jacqueline Duke, Municipality of Anchorage
Posted by Jeanne Devon on April 20, 2012 · 9 Comments
by Linda Kellen Biegel Steve Aufrecht’s blog “What Do I Know” is an often in-depth look at issues dealing with politics, cooking, travel and snippets from everyday life. Yesterday, Steve came up with quite the “get” — he’s the first one who was able to publish an interview with Guadalupe “Lupe” Marroquin, former Deputy Clerk in Charge of Elections for the Municipality. (One of the first things an independent investigator should “investigate” is why the Muni Clerk’s Office never hired a replacement after Lupe left. Instead, the “additional duties” were given to Deputy Clerk Jaqueline Duke, even though there is…
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Category Alaska, Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Anchorage School Board, Baffle it, Bang it, Corrupt Bastards Club, Election 2012, Ethics, LGBT, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Roll your eyes into it, Scratch it, Skulduggery, Strategery, Teabaggery · Tags Guadelupe Marroquin, independent investigator, Municipality of Anchorage Election 2012, Steve Aufrecht, What Do I Know?