Unless forced by a court, the Anchorage Assembly will not look into claims that the April 4 citywide election was marred by fraud, corruption or malconduct.
In a 9-3 vote on May 23, the left-leaning Assembly rejected an election challenged that was submitted last month by 10 concerned voters who say 36,000 voters were disenfranchised by either corruption or ineptitude on the part of the city’s election team.
Assemblymen Scott Myers, Kevin Cross and Randy Sulte were the only members to vote in favor of investigating the election challenge.
Those who filed the challenge point out that 15% of voters (36,143 people) were disenfranchised when the city failed to mail them an election announcement postcard or ballot package. They want to know who made this decision, why, and whether outside contractors played any role. Challengers also want to know why the city’s election team failed to mail ballots to nearly 1,200 voters who successfully voted in the State of Alaska’s Nov. 8, 2022, general election.
With the Assembly’s 9-3 vote, they flatly refused to look into any of these concerns.
In order for challengers to get to the bottom of these questions, they will need to get a court order from a judge to force the Assembly’s hand.
