The April 1 Election Was No Joke!
Yes, progressives, the light you saw heading towards you for this Municipal Election was NOT an oncoming train! We had a very successful night with a possibility (a long-shot, but a possibility nonetheless) of even better news after questioned and absentee ballots are counted. First, the current good news! East Side incumbent Assembly member Adam Trombley has been dumped for a better date – Mr. Pete Petersen! Mao Tosi’s candidacy did not do what his Republican backers wanted — he was unable to pull enough votes from Petersen to give Trombley the win. Pete currently leads Trombley by 336 votes…
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.
Election Good News!
Yes. Election. Good. News. Let’s just sit with that for a moment. As always, there are the last ballots to be counted, and write-in votes to be scrutinized, but here’s where we stand so far: Bettye Davis for School Board handed Don Smith his walking papers (and his rear end) with a decisive 54-45 victory for the seat Smith currently occupies. Bettye is amazing in her own right, but Don Smith’s latest shenanigans and nastiness didn’t help his cause. Davis recently lost her established State Senate seat after Republican redistricting sliced up her former district. It’s good to have her…
“Potentially uncounted” Municipal Ballots Found
Just when you thought the Anchorage municipal election of April 3, 2012 had come to a completely unsatisfying and maddening conclusion, there’s this. Sent out to the press at 6:30 on a Friday night (where news stories go to die) was an announcement from City Hall which ironically began: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE And followed up with this: “Anchorage Assembly Chair Ernie Hall and Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones announce that 141 potentially uncounted ballots in total from three precincts in the April 3, 2012 municipal election were located in precinct election bags on July 11, 2012. The 141 ballots were found…
Open Thread – Linda Kellen Biegel at the Bartlett Club!
Yes, our very own Linda Kellen Biegel will be the featured speaker at the Bartlett Democratic Club luncheon Thursday, May 31. Come to the Denny’s on DeBarr in Anchorage at noon. Have some lunch, and hear Linda’s wrap up of the Municipal election circus. She’s been bulldogging this issue from the beginning to the end, and will share her insights about what went wrong, and what we need to do. Election integrity is a non-partisan issue, and is the foundation of our democracy. Thanks to all who stand up for the thing that truly makes America exceptional – our right…
Election Commissioner and Deputy Clerk Should Be Relieved of Duty
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,…
Assembly Delays Independent Investigation – Election Commission Begins Investigation of Self (UPDATED)
More Questions Than Answers As we march ahead, trying to make sense of the Anchorage Municipal election of April 3, and as more citizens step forward to testify, we find that the questions and concerns have multiplied. Any one of several factors is cause for concern: Polling places running out of ballots, voters being turned away from their polling places, disenfranchisement of unknown numbers of voters, deliberate misinformation from a conservative group to cause chaos at the polls, naive confidence by the Election Commissioner regarding equipment widely known to be problematic, instructions to ignore or replace broken security seals on…