A group of Anchorage voters has formally requested a recount of ballots associated with the city’s troubled April 3 election. The group — consisting of 10 Anchorage voters, and headed by Anchorage attorney Hal Gazaway — is asking that all ballots cast in 15 different precincts be recounted by hand. The recount application, filed late Wednesday afternoon with the city clerk’s office, says the results provided by the optical scan vote counting machines used on election night can’t be trusted. The recount application cites reports of “at least one” malfunctioning vote counting machine. It also cites testimony from a poll worker that a security seal for a vote counting machine’s memory card appeared to be “cut.” The group asking for the recount also said it was concerned with Deputy Municipal Clerk Jacqueline Duke’s instructions to poll workers that they “ignore and/or replace security seals protecting the memory cards that were ‘broken in transport.'”
The application also cites a large discrepancy between a Dittman poll conducted a week before the election and the apparent voting results. Dittman’s poll showed that 41 percent of respondents said they’d be voting against a controversial gay rights initiative on the ballot, while actual results show that 58 percent of Anchorage voters turned it down. More than half of Anchorage’s polling precincts ran out of ballots on election night, forcing some voters to drive to other polling places in order to vote. Some voters have filed affidavits with the ACLU claiming they ran out of time in the last-minute scramble, with the polls closing before they got a chance to vote.
In the recount application, the group also asks for several election-related documents, including all precinct rosters and voter index lists. It also asks for any documentation of “complaints or requests for assistance” relating to election night problems. According to assemblywoman Elvi Gray-Jackson, the 10-member group has paid the mandated deposit of $1500 for the recount application — $100 for each precinct to be recounted.
Full Article: Voters File for Anchorage Election Recount – ktuu.com.