Posted by Jeanne Devon on May 9, 2012 · 30 Comments
This morning, the recount of 15 precincts of the Anchorage Municipal election began. Ten registered voters signed a petition for the recount, and $1500 was collected to begin the process. Each $100 bought one precinct. The Mudflats’ Linda Kellen-Biegel and Bent Alaska’s Mel Green were two of the ten signers, and are both present right now as the counting begins. You can follow Linda’s Twitter feed @celticdiva for updates and pictures. Here’s what we know so far: As of 8:34 this morning, Deputy Municipal Clerk Jacqueline Duke was present in the counting room. Yes, the same Jacqueline Duke who instructed…
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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 Shannyn Moore on April 30, 2012 · 15 Comments
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…
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Category ACLU, Election 2012, Ethics, Skulduggery · Tags Alaska Diebold, Anchorage election, Diebold Accuvote, election integrity, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Paul Honeman, Shannyn Moore
Posted by Jeanne Devon on April 29, 2012 · 59 Comments
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…
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Category Election 2012, Joe Miller, Municipality of Anchorage, Republicans, Strategery · Tags Alaska Republican party, Alaska Republican Party Convention, Anchorage tea party, Givemeliberty.org, Joe Miller, Lisa Murkowski, National Clean Elections Lawsuit, Randy Ruedrich, Ron Paul Alaska, Russ Millette, We the People project
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
