A city review of this week’s Anchorage election shows that nearly half of the 121 voting precincts ran out of preprinted ballots at some point. Late Friday, the city clerk’s office said it had finished a preliminary review of all the precincts. It found that 55 of the 121 experienced ballot shortages in Tuesday’s election. In addition, nearly 6,100 questioned ballots were cast, compared with about 1,000 in last year’s election. Most of the questioned ballots were cast before ballot shortages occurred. Questioned ballots are issued if a voter lacks identification, is not on the registry, has moved within the past 30 days or is voting in a place other than a home precinct. The clerk’s office says more than 1,400 additional unscanned ballots were cast. In those cases, the voter signed the register, but used a ballot that could not be scanned by machine. Those are not questioned ballots.
Mayor Dan Sullivan easily won re-election Tuesday. A heavily debated gay rights measure was rejected. Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, is calling for a special counsel to investigate the election problem. Anchorage Assembly Chairwoman Debby Ossiander said it is too early to begin an independent probe. She said the city clerk and six-member Election Commission need time to review first. The clerk’s office said the Election Commission will work Saturday, verifying the status of questioned ballots.
Full Article: More than 50 Alaska precincts ran out of ballots.