Weather
Preliminary Voter Turnout Below Average in Anchorage Municipal ElectionANCHORAGE – While election officials reported unprecedented crowds at local polls Tuesday, preliminary turnout numbers are roughly four points below the municipality’s 20-year average. With all but two precincts reporting Wednesday morning, nearly 27 percent of registered voters had cast their ballots by the time the polls closed the night before. The number stacks up favorably to turnouts four years ago, when only 23 percent of registered voters made an appearance. Four years prior, during the April 2006 election, 35 percent of registered voters cast a card. The Municipal Clerk’s office said numbers reported last night don’t include early voting, questioned and absentee ballots. After multiple precincts reported running out of certain types of cards, Deputy Municipal Clerk Jaqueline Duke said her office received thousands of questioned ballots when voters were forced to use them as an alternative. In some precincts, voters reported being turned away altogether when there were no ballots left. The situation prompted the Municipal Attorney’s office to look into the possibility of voter disenfranchisement and its impact on the validity of the election. The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska has also set up a hotline for voters who have concerns about last night’s process. Ballot shortages weren’t the only issue effecting the total count: Misinformation passed along by opponents of Proposition 5 told people they could register to vote at polling places Tuesday, contrary to municipal law requiring voters to register 30 days prior to the election. The Municipal Clerk’s office reported 121 ballots were cast by last-minute registrants yesterday, and they will “likely not have their votes counted.” As it stands, results reveal a win for incumbent Mayor Dan Sullivan, with nearly 60 percent of the vote, compared to 38 percent cast for challenger Paul Honeman. School board candidates Kathleen Plunkett, Tam Agosti-Gisler and Natasha Von Imhof unofficially won their seats with at least 15 percent leads over other candidates. Proposition 1, a nearly $60 million bond for area schools, passed with more than 57 percent of the vote, and the $27 million service area bond detailed in proposition 2 passed with nearly 65 percent. A nearly $3 million bond for local park renovations passed with nearly 50 percent of the total vote, and a $1.5 million bond for emergency services and public transportation passed with nearly 66 percent of the vote. More than 58 percent of voters said no to proposition 5, which would have included sexual orientation and transgender identity to the list of classes legally protected from discrimination. Proposition 7, a property tax exemption for spouses of U.S military men and women killed on duty, passed with more than 75 percent of the vote. The Municipal Clerk’s office is in the process of finalizing, organizing and counting absentee and questioned ballots, and a final decision and count will be made at a public canvass scheduled for April 11. |
This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled.
Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.
|
You have indicated this comment should be removed.
The comment has been submitted for review. Thank you .
Joey Brockhouse said on Wednesday, Apr 4 at 3:25 PM
The clerk is required to have 70% or 143,386 ballots to be available for the voters so if there are 54,946 ballots accounted for they should have 88,440 ballots left to count unless they broke the law. That is a lot more than the 126 they say who showed up unregistered. That means there are more ballots to be counted than have been counted or a serious amount of ballots are missing or were never printed. This doesn't even include the napkins, pieces of paper, copied sample ballots and voters who were not allowed to vote which should throw a stench on this election that can only be repaired by a special election!! Do the right thing and hold a competent election!!!
86463886Michael said on Wednesday, Apr 4 at 8:58 PM
There needs to be a new election. Besides fraud being committed by the anti-gay lobby, thousands were not even able to vote. To claim that this election is fair makes as much sense as saying Bush won in 2000.
86484145Barny said on Wednesday, Apr 4 at 9:40 PM
The people who showed up unregistered by law could not vote. There would have been very few who made it through, and those who did could easily be identified, as is evident. The officials have a number and they intend to discard those people's ballots. This call for a special election is bizarre. And everything passed by such massive margins, there's not even a question where the will of the people was. It is sad to see mixups in the democratic process, but this seems to be a tiny hiccup (not like dead people voting in Chicago). I just want to know why they didn't actually have ALL the ballots they printed on hand.
86485416Mandy Gershon said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 11:43 AM
If each polling place turned away a dozen voters, just how many people did not get to vote?
86540954Mandy Gershon said on Thursday, Apr 5 at 1:34 PM
I believe there is a chance that a significant amount of qualified voters were not allowed to vote. If that is case, is it really just a hiccup?
86550645Add a comment
Most Popular