The ACLU asked for one last week. Then it was the NAACP. And if a young voter named Laura Herman doesn’t get one, she says, oh, there will be trouble. The Anchorage Assembly better launch an investigation into the city’s trouble-plagued April 3 election, the 23-year-old told Assembly members Tuesday night, or she’s going after their jobs. “There’s a bunch of you that I support on this Assembly, but I will actively be involved in revoking all of you because my voice is being taken away when you decide not to investigate,” she said. It’s not that the Assembly isn’t going to trigger an inquiry into the election, during which ballots temporarily ran dry at about one of every three precincts. Several Assembly members say they’ve made up their minds to do just that. Just not yet.
“I have no doubt that that investigation is going to occur,” said West Anchorage Assemblyman Ernie Hall, whose peers voted him the new Assembly chairman Tuesday. But the Assembly at the meeting delayed certification of the election until at least April 24, and Hall said the inquiry ought to wait too. The postponement allows for the Election Commission to finish counting the remaining 13,434 votes and issue recommendations on just what an investigator ought to be looking for, he said.
Nearly every major race in the election was decided in a blowout, meaning the results are unlikely to change. Still, confirmation of the election is more than just a formality. Until the Assembly signs off on certification, two new school board members can’t take their seats and a raft of new voter-approved bonds is on hold.
Full Article: Assembly postpones certifying election: 2012 Municipal election | Alaska news at adn.com.