Posted by Linda Kellen Biegel on July 24, 2012 · 27 Comments
In last week’s installment of the Municipality of Anchorage’s continuing 2012 Election debacle, new Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones made a disturbing find while attempting to (quite literally) clean up the old Municipal Clerk’s mess…141 unaccounted-for ballots. This has led the trusty Election Commission to meet this coming Thursday and review the ballots they missed the first two times around. While all of that has been going on, members of our Recount Observation Team have continued to research and slowly pursue the auditing process the Municipality has refused to provide. …and it’s been free of charge… The latest bombshell was discovered…
Category Alaska, Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Baffle it, Election 2012, Elections, Ethics, Headlines, LGBT, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Skulduggery, Strategery, Teabaggery · Tags Anchorage Municipal Clerk, Anchorage Municipal Election 2012, Barbara Gruenstein, Hand Recount, Jacqueline Duke, Jeanne Friedman, Linda Kellen-Biegel, Recount Observation Team
Posted by Jeanne Devon on July 13, 2012 · 17 Comments
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…
Category Alaska, Baffle it, Bang it, Election 2012, Elections, Headlines · Tags Anchorage Municipal Election, Barbara Gruenstein, election integrity, Ernie Hall, Jacqueline Duke, Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones
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…
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 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…
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 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….
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…
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 15, 2012 · 39 Comments
By Jeanne Devon and Linda Kellen Biegel Friday’s Assembly work session at the Loussac Library was a chance for Anchorage Assembly members to ask questions of the key players involved in the botched Municipal election of April 3. They’d be speaking to Gwen Matthews, Chair of the Election Commission; Barbara Gruenstein, Municipal Clerk; Jacqueline Duke, Deputy Municipal Clerk; and Dennis Wheeler, Municipal Attorney. Validity of Votes Cast First up was Gwen Matthew who spoke of her role checking for the validity of the votes cast. She assured the Assembly that her team was examining everything with all the tools at…
Category Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Election 2012, Ethics, Joe Miller, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Skulduggery · Tags Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Municipal Election, Barbara Gruenstein, Brad Friedman, Christ Birch, Diebold, Diebold Accuvote, election integrity, Ernie Hall, Gwen Matthew, Hacking Democracy, Harriet Drummond, Jacqueline Duke, Mayor Dan Sullivan
