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Anchorage Voters Ask for Do-Over Election After Tuesday's Voting IssuesCity clerk's office continues counting ballotsRelated Content
ANCHORAGE – As the city clerk's office continues counting ballots from Tuesday's municipal election, both the city attorney and the Alaska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union are researching potential remedies for would-be voters frustrated by a shortage of ballots and official envelopes at multiple precincts. So far, the margin of success for Mayor Dan Sullivan over challenger Paul Honeman and the margin of defeat for the equal rights initiative known as Proposition 5 might both be so great that the election outcomes on the two biggest items on the ballot are mathematically beyond question. But there are poll workers and voters who believe a new election is warranted, regardless. "I want a real ballot," shouted a man at Hanshew Middle School Tuesday night. Voters and precinct poll workers at numerous locations expressed frustration that they ran out of ballots and could not get re-supplied quickly enough from the city clerk's office downtown, with delays of an hour and longer. "Some people just felt it wasn't worth it to try and vote if they had to go through all this trouble,” said poll worker Mandy Gershon. “Some people were driving for hours trying to find a place to vote." "The rationale may have been, we don't want our precinct workers to have to deal with boxes and boxes of ballots that they're never going to use, so we're just going to keep them down here and take them out when we need them," said poll worker Connie Sumida. Municipal Clerk Barbara Gruenstein said turnover was heavier than expected, but acknowledged that many ballots had been held in reserve in her office, as she said is routine. "It's hard, but it's very, very sad that people didn't get to vote or they felt they couldn't stand around until the ballots came. But we tried." Some voters said they went to three or four polling places before they were able to cast a vote. "I don't believe this was a valid election,” said voter Judith Dolan. “I don't believe that it should stand, regardless of who won, what propositions passed or didn't pass." Everyone seems to agree some level of disenfranchisement occurred, but the question is, is it actually possible to restage the election? City Attorney Dennis Wheeler said that is the last remedy the court would look to. “It's obviously a very expensive undertaking, and as the mayor noted, in this particular case so far, the spreads are so great that even if you could come with an estimate of what the disenfranchisement number might be, it may have no impact whatsoever." The local ACLU chapter has established a hotline for voters who feel they were disenfranchised. "As a general rule, if the outcome of the election were changed because of improprieties or irregularities in the election, that would obviously be very serious and would warrant further action," said Executive Director Jeffrey Mittman. What Gruenstein calls “the universe of numbers” is still being charted. |
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Mike J said on Wednesday, Apr 4 at 8:12 PM
Sad had to yell at the volunteer worker at the Hanshew Middle polling place. Worker probably in enough panic looking for instructions and guidance,having to abide by election laws and not being able to just wing it.
86482134Not An Online Poll said on Wednesday, Apr 4 at 8:37 PM
I don't think it's enough for the Dennis Wheeler to put that quote all over the news. Even if the "spread" is huge, you don't have the power to appoint your boss and gloss over what happened. He shouldn't be quoting the mayor, who stands to win, and who was running the city when the shortages occurred.
86483203Mr. Mcfeely said on Wednesday, Apr 4 at 8:41 PM
KTVA Enough already!!!
86483425cop.huh said on Wednesday, Apr 4 at 10:32 PM
Isn't it funny more problems when a cop is involved.There goes abunch of my money....AGAIN.. Shaking my head..
86486633Wes S said on Wednesday, Apr 4 at 10:43 PM
I do not think a paid poll worker should be second guessing the situation with what may have been, unless the reporting agency misquoted her. If she does not have the facts then she needs to keep quite and let someone who knows what is going on. I just might think about letting this poll helper go is the same thing if I do not have all the fact. We all know what "ASSUMING" does, so please if you do not have the facts, keep the trap shut or refer them to the proper people in charge.
86486926Polarstar62 said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 7:56 AM
I just want to know what the percentage of Unregistered and Questionable ballots were voted? How many Registered voters are there in the Anchorage Municipality? How many Ballots were used?
86517575itsallgood said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 10:41 AM
My guess would be that they ran out of polls for both parties and not for just the ones that hate this country. I didn't along with 40 people I personally know that would have voted for the outcome.
86535216Mandy Gershon said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 11:59 AM
@Wes - Nothing I said was "second-guessing." I stated what I knew to be true. @Mike J - No, we are not volunteer workers. As a poll worker, I was trained to make sure people get to vote. Anyone can cast a vote, but if you are not on the register, or do not have ID, or some other issue exists that makes your vote questionable, you are to vote a question ballot. We could not physically accommodate question ballots as we had no more left. I find it interesting that they now say they didn't want election workers to deal with so many ballots. In the past, they have always stated otherwise. And frankly, if they want to "let me go," I'm okay with that. I prefer to work in honest elections. The money isn't worth the price of our freedom.
86542674Mandy Gershon said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 12:00 PM
If my precinct turned away a dozen voters and the 3 other precincts in my area turned away a dozen voters, that's 48 voters in a small area that were denied their right to vote. I have to ask, what was that number citywide?
86542814Raven33 said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 1:27 PM
The ACLU gets paid by tax payers to "protect" people. It's in their "financial" interest to create as much trouble as possible so they get paid. I agree everyone should have been able to vote and this should never happen again. But lets be realistic here. Even if Prop 5 got every missed vote for the Pro side and Honeman the vote for Mayor, both still would have lost. Lets not waste money on a re-vote when it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Jeeze, enough already!
86550034Mark P said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 3:43 PM
Why would a person be driving around looking for a place to vote when they need to just be patient and wait for new ballots to be delivered so they can vote in their own district? And why did all these people wait until the last minute. I knew a long time ago what day the election was and planned in advance what time I would vote. I think many Americans have a problem with priorities. Voting didn't seem like much of a priority until things went wrong because you waited until the last minute.
86558874Steve S said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 4:02 PM
@Mark P... People were not given the option to wait they were turned away and told try over there only to be told keep trying... Some got tired of waiting at polls that were staying open. The other side of that is people thought that polls closed at 8:00 as is the law. They werent told they could wait and as long as there were there in line before 8:00 or could say they were turned away from another polling fascility they would be allowed to vote.
86560166mlmrn said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 8:33 PM
This is the usual MO of the Sullivan administration.... As a former employee of the Muni this administration made it impossible to do my job effectively and efficiently because of the micromanagment coming from City Hall and the direct report of Mayor Dan. His "efficiencies" have cost the city much more money and time than most people know about. He did not get my vote and I am Republican!
86576646Common Sense said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 11:10 PM
If we could do it over it should not be with the same people that caused the problem in the first place, Fire them all first then we'll talk about a redo.
86582004Mandy Gershon said on Friday, Apr 6 at 8:49 AM
@Mark P - People voting earlier just would have caused the shortages to occur earlier. Shortages began occurring about 6pm on the east side. Ballots didn't show up until 7:40pm.
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