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March 28, 2024

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No Time for Tuckerman -

Thursday, August 3, 2023

The Quitter Returns! -

Monday, March 21, 2022

Putting the goober in gubernatorial -

Friday, January 28, 2022

Recount Team Meets with the Anchorage Assembly

(Tonight at the Anchorage Assembly Meeting, the Members will hear and vote upon a Resolution (9.B.7), submitted by Assemblywoman Gray-Jackson and co-sponsored by Harriet Drummond and Patrick Flynn, that is intended to refund the $1,500.00 the Recount Application Group submitted to the Municipality. The money was required by Title 28 in order to request and generate the hand count of 15 precincts. The Resolution was a result of the report and meeting described in the post below. It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, votes against it.) The Election Board Counts Precinct 840, Service High On Friday, June…

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Election Recount Worksession With Assembly — Join Us!

The April 3rd Anchorage Municipal Election Recount Group will be meeting with the Anchorage Assembly in a Worksession this Friday to share our findings and recommendations with them.  Per the website: ***************************************** Worksession – Election Recount Issues  From 06/15/12 1:00 PM To 06/15/12 2:00 PM City Hall 632 W 6th Ave Anchorage Alaska Conference Room 830 ***************************************** This is a public meeting, as are all Assembly Meetings and Worksessions. WE HIGHLY ENCOURAGE ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE FUTURE OF ELECTIONS IN ANCHORAGE TO SHOW UP IF YOU CAN! Our Recount Group now includes the 10 original signers plus some…

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Election Recertified, Muni Clerk Resigns

I know I’ve been silent regarding my participation one of the “Ten Qualified Voters” who triggered the Election (Hand) Recount of 15 precincts.  I hope all of you understand that I was writing constantly “for the cause” and wasn’t able to write it on Mudflats. AKM has been doing a magnificent job. My commentary on this post will be short but you can read the letter that we (through Hal Gazaway) submitted to Chairman Hall and the Assembly before yesterday’s meeting. The letter regards our findings as we went through days of the hand count process.   When you read it, you will find it unsurprising that the…

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The Hand Count of Botched Anchorage Election Doesn’t Follow Code

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…

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Deputy Municipal Clerk, Jacqueline Duke Terminated. Let the Recount Begin.

This morning, the recount of 15 precincts of the Anchorage Municipal election began. Ten registered voters signed a petition for the recount, and $1500 was collected to begin the process. Each $100 bought one precinct. The Mudflats’ Linda Kellen-Biegel and Bent Alaska’s Mel Green were two of the ten signers, and are both present right now as the counting begins. You can follow Linda’s Twitter feed @celticdiva for updates and pictures. Here’s what we know so far: As of  8:34 this morning, Deputy Municipal Clerk Jacqueline Duke was present in the counting room. Yes, the same Jacqueline Duke who instructed…

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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,…

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Election Commissioner and Poll Worker Clash at Assembly Meeting – “That’s a lie!”

Tensions ran high at last night’s Assembly meeting, held to certify the badly botched Municipal election of April 3, 2012. The most intense moment came when Gwen Mathew, the Anchorage Election Commissioner, testified to the Assembly about the issue of broken security seals on the Diebold AccuVote machines on the day of the election. Mathew stated that she had received no report “at all, anywhere, of a seal being broken.” Wendy Isbell, a poll worker who had reported a broken seal multiple times in testimony, in writing, and by interview, to the Assembly, her precinct chair, and the Election Commission…

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Not-so-special Assembly Meeting to Certify Election Fiasco

    I’m sitting here at the “oh so” special meeting of the Anchorage Assembly which was called to certify the vote in the debacle formerly known as the Anchorage Municipal election, and it’s just like a Norman Rockwell painting. You know, the one with Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence. It was a month ago today when more than half of the precincts ran out of ballots, voters were turned away from the polls and sent on wild goose chases across the city in an attempt to vote. Sometimes they were able to, and sometimes they weren’t. Then we learned…

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Voters File for Hand Recount of Anchorage Municipal Election

OK, everyone! Let’s hear it for the magnificent 10! These Anchorage voters decided to join forces, speak up and say no to this nightmare we call an election that the Election Commission seems to think is just fine. No investigation, they say. No malfeasance they say. No reckless disregard, they say. No reprimands or censures, they say. Move along apathetic public, move along. Yesterday, 10 Anchorage voters filed a recount application with the Municipal Clerk’s Office per Title 28 of the Municipal Code. The provision allows for ten qualified voters to file a recount application with the municipal clerk within…

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Former Anchorage Election Coordinator Calls for Full Hand Count of Paper Ballots

  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…

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