Alaska

Alaska: Inside Democrats’ Secret Effort to Stack Senate Ballot | Kellen Browning/The New York Times

An investigative report details how operatives aligned with Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)—in an internal initiative dubbed the "ballot composition project"—spent months covertly recruiting candidates, including a retired teacher from the Alaska Panhandle named Dan J. Sullivan, to run against incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan. While this specific maneuvering is novel, ballot-stacking tactics and the recruitment of third-party, independent, or "spoiler" candidates in primaries are neither illegal nor uncommon, and have historically been utilized by both political parties in Alaska and nationwide. Furthermore, Alaska's use of a ranked-choice voting system heavily mitigates any purported voter confusion, as voters can distinctly rank their preferences and choices rather than being forced into a strict binary or falling prey to accidental mis-votes. Although campaign officials publicly denied involvement, the effort has fueled fierce pushback, including a Department of Justice lawsuit attempting to block election certification should the incumbent senator lose by a narrow margin attributable to the namesake candidate. Read Article

Alaska: After a Yearslong Nightmare, Relief for American Samoans Punished for Voting | Alex Burness’/Bolts

Mike Pese visited the grave of his mother, Miliama Suli, in Anchorage on Sept. 13, as he has every week since she died in March. On previous visits, he’d shared with her his fears about the yearslong legal case hanging over his family: The Republican-led state attorney general’s office had moved to convict him and 10 relatives for illegally voting, threatening up to 10 years of prison time. The family lived together in the small harbor town of Whittier, Alaska. They all hail originally from the faraway U.S. territory of American Samoa, which they thought gave them the right to vote in their local elections, as is the case for people born in every other U.S. state and territory. But unbeknownst to them, and even to many Alaska officials, American Samoans are denied voting rights outside of American Samoa, since they are classified as U.S. nationals and not citizens. State officials accused them of intentionally voting as non-citizens, and filed the criminal charges that have consumed Pese’s family for nearly three years. Read Article

Alaska appeals court dismisses noncitizen voting case against American Samoan | James Brooks/Alaska Beacon

A three-judge panel of the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled Friday that state prosecutors misled grand jurors who indicted a Whittier resident for allegedly voting illegally.Had jurors received accurate information, the court said, “the grand jury likely would have declined to indict.” Tupe Smith, the plaintiff behind Friday’s decision, is one of 11 people — all American Samoans — whom the state of Alaska has accused of criminally violating state law. Smith had filed a motion to dismiss the case against her, but a state superior court judge ruled against that motion. In Friday’s 20-page ruling, the three-judge panel reversed the lower court’s rejection and in the process, it also defined a high standard that prosecutors must meet in order to convict someone of voting illegally in Alaska. Read Article

Alaska: DOJ issues grand jury subpoenas in probe of Dan J. Sullivan’s US Senate candidacy | Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Independent

With national media already focusing on Alaska’s U.S. Senate race during the state’s primary election on Tuesday, a new flurry of stories surfaced during the afternoon about the U.S. Department of Justice ​issuing grand jury subpoenas in its investigation of Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy. Sullivan, a retired Petersburg teacher, is running as a Republican against namesake incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. Republican party officials, as well as the Alaska Division of Elections, have accused Dan J. Sullivan of being a sham candidate trying to confuse voters. The subpoenas were first reported by NBC News, citing "a law enforcement official" and noting the issuance of them last week "to compel information from witnesses linked to the campaign of Dan J. Sullivan" has not been previously reported. Other news agencies including Reuters published subsequent reports, also citing unnamed sources. Read Article

Alaska continues criminal prosecution of nine American Samoan residents despite landmark U.S. Supreme Court citizenship ruling | Jonson Kuhn/KTUU

The State of Alaska is doubling down on its criminal prosecution of nine American Samoan residents in Whittier, opposing a motion to dismiss that argues a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling makes them U.S. citizens. The development comes as members of the Pese family remain caught in the state’s slow-moving legal system. A discovery hearing for Michael Pese — who filed the initial motion to dismiss in Anchorage Superior Court — was scheduled for this week, though representation for the family said they expect little progress as these hearings have repeatedly been rescheduled. In a court filing on Aug. 4, state prosecutors formally opposed Pese’s motion to dismiss the felony voter misconduct charges. Pese’s defense team argued that under the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Trump v. Barbara, anyone born on U.S. soil—including U.S. territories like American Samoa—is constitutionally a U.S. citizen under the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Read Article

Alaska Division of Elections erroneously removed more than 600 citizens from voter list | James Brooks/Alaska Beacon

More than 600 U.S. citizens were mistakenly flagged as possible noncitizens and removed from Alaska’s list of active voters earlier this year, the director of the Alaska Division of Elections said Thursday in a letter responding to questions from state lawmakers. Those citizens were among 3,058 people removed from the list after the division compared its citizenship data to a separate set of records kept by the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles. Someone removed from the voter list may still cast a vote this year, but they will not appear on the register of their local precinct and will have to provide additional identity information in order to cast a “questioned ballot.” Removal from the active voter list also puts a citizen on the path to being purged altogether from the voter list, an act that would make them ineligible to vote. Alaska Division of Elections erroneously removed more than 600 citizens from voter list | Alaska Beacon

Alaska: Questions about state’s handling of election grow as 3,500 registered voters asked to verify citizenship | Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Independent

A legislative hearing scrutinizing unprecedented actions by state elections officials against U.S. Senate candidate Dan J. Sullivan escalated into a new controversy Wednesday with the revelation that 3,500 people have been removed from active voter rolls and asked to verify they are U.S. citizens. Letters sent to those people from the Alaska Division of Elections state it has "received information from the Alaska Department of Motor Vehicles that you may not be a citizen." Carol Beecher, the division’s director, told legislators the people notified have been placed on an inactive list and told they need to confirm their citizenship. The notifications are part of a quarterly voter maintenance process in collaboration with DMV that typically results in about 200 notifications, Beecher said. However, DMV, in a memo issued Thursday, stated the elections division made a "a non-routine request" in March specifically for citizenship information involving 15,200 driver’s license and identification applicants. Read Article

Alaska removes thousands from state’s active voter list, erroneously flagging some citizens | James Brooks and Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon

The state of Alaska has removed an estimated 3,000 to 3,500 Alaskans from the state’s active voter list, claiming they may be noncitizens. The removals leave those residents able to vote only if they provide extra identity information, and removal puts them on track to be purged from the state’s voter roll altogether. Only U.S. citizens may vote in Alaska, according to state and federal law, but many of the removals appear to have affected citizens who were erroneously flagged by the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles. Carol Beecher, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, told state lawmakers on Wednesday that the removals were the result of “old data” given to the division from the DMV, and she isn’t sure why so many Alaskans were flagged as possible noncitizens. Read Article

Alaska legislators probe decision to remove candidate from the ballot | Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon

Members of the Alaska House Judiciary and State Affairs committees held an investigatory hearing on Monday about the state’s decision to remove a candidate from the U.S. Senate election with the same name as the incumbent — Dan Sullivan. The Division of Elections announced that Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, was not eligible to run for the U.S. Senate. It cited complaints from the incumbent and Republican groups when it decided his candidacy was not in “good faith,” and aimed at confusing voters with the incumbent U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan. The division cited a state regulation that forbids the Division of Elections from listing a candidate’s name “in a manner that is confusing or misleading to voters or compromises the fairness or neutrality of the ballot.” But some lawmakers questioned the decision and the division’s authority to remove the challenger candidate. An attorney representing the Alaska Legislature issued a legal memo Wednesday saying the decision to disqualify the candidate was likely unlawful, since he did not violate the U.S. Constitution’s qualifications to run for office. Read Article

Alaska election officials take steps to disqualify second Dan Sullivan from Senate primary | Becky Bohrer/Associated Press

A top Alaska elections official has threatened to disqualify from the state’s August primary a U.S. Senate candidate who shares the same name and party affiliation as incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan. Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher in a letter to challenger Dan Sullivan said her office had received two complaints regarding his eligibility and determined “that the preponderance of evidence does not support your eligibility for the office of United States Senator.” She gave him a Thursday deadline to submit “any additional information and evidence” in response. Sullivan, the challenger, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the letter from Beecher, a registered Republican who in the past has donated to Republican groups and campaigns. Her letter, dated Wednesday and published by the Anchorage Daily News, did not specify the evidence it found to potentially remove him from the primary ballot, and her office did not respond to requests for comment. Read Article

Alaska Governor introduces new elections bill days after vetoing last version | Mari Kanagy/Anchorage Daily News

After vetoing the Legislature’s election reform bill last week, Gov. Mike Dunleavy requested a do-over with a largely similar elections bill Thursday. It includes a new signature verification process and delays implementation past the November general election. But lawmakers said they don’t have the time or political will to pass the governor’s new version, with less than two weeks left in the regular session. “There’s simply not time left in the session to entertain another bill that the governor’s office has put forward, which, to me, is almost a gratuitous effort to try to salvage what I clearly would describe as a very questionable decision to veto the bill in the first place,” said House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent. The vetoed Senate Bill 64 would have made broad reforms to the state’s election system, representing years of negotiations and priorities from both sides of the aisle in the Legislature. Read Article

Alaska Governor vetoes bipartisan elections reform bill | Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a bipartisan bill aimed at streamlining the state’s elections process on Thursday, just seven months ahead of high-stakes state and federal elections in November. Leaders with the multipartisan House Majority caucus said there will be a joint legislative veto override vote within the next few days. In a prepared statement announcing the veto, Dunleavy said while there are many provisions in the bills he supports, the bill contained “legal and operational challenges and could jeopardize the election process.” He told lawmakers his two main issues with the bill are related to when it would go into effect and voters’ signature verification. “The Division of Elections warns such changes would be extremely difficult if not impossible, to implement securely and reliably in advance of the 2026 elections,” he wrote in a transmittal letter to the Legislature. He said the Division needs sufficient time to make necessary changes. Read Article

Alaska: ‘It would be catastrophic’: A Supreme Court decision could upend crucial Senate race | Lisa Kashinsky/Politico

In the villages that dot Kodiak Island off the coast of southwest Alaska, the post arrives by plane. Mailing a ballot to the archipelago’s hub takes at least two days — if the region’s frequent storms haven’t grounded air traffic. It’s a common problem across Alaska. And it’s a big reason why the state allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted for up to 10 days afterward, a critical reprieve for voters in remote communities that are disconnected from the state’s highway system and sometimes even polling locations. That’s why Alaskans across the political spectrum are sounding the alarm about a pending Supreme Court ruling. A majority of justices appear to be leaning toward barring states from counting late-arriving ballots, a ruling that would upend voting laws in Alaska and more than a dozen other states. That could potentially disenfranchise hundreds of voters in Kodiak’s distant villages and thousands more across the remote reaches of The Last Frontier — and upend Alaska’s election process in a state that could determine Senate control. Read Article

Alaska: Anchorage election officials push back on ‘misleading’ claims about its mobile voting system | Sabrina Bodon and Bella Biondini/Anchorage Daily News

A company that’s been touting Anchorage’s mobile voting use has been told to stop. The Municipality of Anchorage in March sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Mobile Voting Project and its founder, Bradley Tusk, asserting the company has misrepresented the city’s mobile voting. As the municipality prepares for its April 7 election, it has had to contend with what its attorneys have called “false and misleading statements about the Municipality’s voting technology that risk undermining voter confidence in the integrity of our elections,” according to the cease-and-desist letter dated March 11. The New York Times on Nov. 13 published an article titled “Will People Trust Voting by Phone? Alaska Is Going to Find Out,” referring to Anchorage’s use of mobile voting as an “experiment with internet voting in local elections, betting that its ease and security will win over voters even in an era of election conspiracy theories.” The article prominently featured venture capitalist Tusk and the Mobile Voting Project. Municipal Clerk Jamie Heinz released a swift response to the article that evening, saying it was “an egregious misrepresentation of MOA Elections.” Heinz said the article made it seem like voting options had changed and that the municipality mainly uses mobile voting. Read Article

In Alaska, a grace period for ballots is seen as a necessity | AP News

The tiny Alaska Native village of Beaver is about 40 minutes — by plane — from the nearest city. Its roughly 50 residents rely on weekday flights for mail and many of their basic supplies, from groceries to Amazon deliveries of everyday household items. Air service plays an outsize role in the nation’s most expansive state, where most communities rely on flights for year-round access. Planes also play a critical role in elections, getting voting materials and ballots to and from rural precincts such as Beaver and in delivering ballots for thousands of Alaskans who vote by mail — some in places where in-person voting is not available. The vast distances and relative isolation of so many communities make Alaska unique and are why its residents have a significant interest in arguments taking place Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court. Read Article

Alaska Lawmakers question decision to turn over confidential voter data to DOJ | Eric Stone/Alaska Public Media

State lawmakers had some sharp questions on Monday for Alaska’s Division of Elections about its decision to share the state’s full, unredacted voter list with the Department of Justice. The state turned over the voter list to the federal government in December after a series of requests from the Department of Justice. At first, in August, the Division of Elections shared only the public, commercially available list. The DOJ followed up later that month demanding the full list, including a range of information designated by state law as confidential: voters’ date of birth, their driver’s license or partial social security number, a status code, and their address, even if the voter marked it confidential. Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees the Division of Elections, announced the state had transferred the list shortly before Christmas. Read Article

Alaska: Federal government may seek removal of individual Alaskans from state voter rolls | James Brooks/Alaska Beacon

When the state of Alaska turned over a copy of the state’s voter rolls to the Department of Justice in December, it also signed an agreement that allows the DOJ to ask the state to put individual Alaskans on track for removal from the state’s voter list. Officially labeled a “confidential memorandum of understanding,” the document was signed Dec. 19 by Carol Beecher, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, and U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. Alaska is one of at least a dozen states that have signed similar documents or expressed an interest in them, even as more states continue to fight the requests in court. Read Article

Alaska: Anchorage officials clarify role of electronic voting in city’s mail elections after report | Bella Biondini and Sabrina Bodon/Anchorage Daily News

After the publication of a report this week on the city’s remote voting options, Anchorage officials sought to clarify its offerings, which they say were mischaracterized in a national news story. Among the options to vote in Anchorage’s by-mail local elections, voters can choose to cast their ballots electronically, an option the municipality has offered since 2018. In the last year, the city established a “secure document portal” that gives registered voters, no matter where they are, the ability to vote electronically with preapproval without having to email or fax their paper ballot. Municipal Clerk Jamie Heinz, in a statement Thursday responding to a New York Times article on the city’s use of electronic voting, called the story an “egregious misrepresentation of MOA Elections. The article claims a new ‘experiment’ will allow all voters to cast ballots from their smartphones. This is factually inaccurate,“ Heinz said. Read Article

Alaska: Will People Trust Voting by Phone? Anchorage Is Going to Find Out. | Nick Corasaniti/The New York Times

The largest city in Alaska is about to undertake an experiment that feels both inevitable and impossibly futuristic in an era of pervasive mistrust toward elections: allowing all voters to cast ballots from their smartphones. Anchorage, home to about 240,000 registered voters, is starting small. Mail and in-person voting will still exist, but voters will also be able to open a link on their phones to cast a ballot in municipal races in April, when six city assembly seats and two school board seats are up for election. The change will not apply to higher-profile races later in the year for state legislature, governor and federal offices. But even at the local level, the trial run of phone voting — the first of its scale in the nation — could offer a blueprint for expanded use in future elections beyond Alaska.S Read Article

Alaska Republican opposition kills bill intended to fix absentee voting problems | Jamesx Brooks/Alaska Beacon

A major elections reform bill, a priority of House and Senate leaders, is dead in the Alaska Legislature. Among the changes in the bill: Speedier ballot counting, better tracking of absentee ballots, ballot dropboxes across the state, free return postage for absentee ballots, a liaison to help fix voting issues in rural Alaska, permanent absentee ballot registration, a method to fix paperwork problems after an absentee ballot is cast, the elimination of the requirement that a “witness” sign a voter’s absentee ballot, and additional security audits. Many of the House’s Republicans objected to the bill, saying that they believe it did not do enough to address their concerns about election security. Read Article

Alaskans don’t have a right to correct errors on absentee ballots, state judge rules | Sean Maguire/Anchorage Daily News

An Anchorage judge has ruled that Alaskans don’t have a constitutional right to correct errors they make on absentee ballots. Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, the Native American Rights Fund and the firm Perkins Coie sued the state in 2022, arguing that the lack of a process to fix defective by-mail ballots violated the Alaska Constitution. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the League of Women Voters, the Arctic Village Council and two individual Alaska voters who said their rights were violated because they did not have an opportunity to correct mistakes on their ballots, which meant their votes weren’t counted. Read Article

Alaska: U.S. Justice Department finds state discriminates against disabled voters | Iris Samuels/Anchorage Daily News

The Alaska Division of Elections has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by making voting inaccessible to disabled Alaskans, the U.S. Department of Justice found in a recent investigation. The DOJ found that “Alaska discriminates on the basis of disability” in an investigation initiated in response to complaints that alleged that “accessible voting machines that would allow persons with disabilities to vote privately and independently, were either unavailable at voting sites, or if available, they did not work.” The investigation examined statewide elections held in 2022 and 2023. The investigation detailed several problems that hinder disabled voters’ ability to participate in elections. For state and federal elections, the state did not provide accessible voting machines during early voting and on Election Day, despite claiming that it provides such machines. In some locations where the machines were present, they were not operational, the investigation found. In at least one polling place, the machine was “unassembled in its shipping box.” In other locations, poll workers reported that they “could not operate” the accessible machines. Read Article

Alaska lawmakers advance bipartisan election bill to implement ballot curing, signature verification | Iris Samuels and Sean Maguire/Anchorage Daily News

A bill to update Alaska’s election laws passed out of the Senate State Affairs Committee on Tuesday, part of a bipartisan effort to revive a set of proposals that failed during last year’s legislative session. The bill, which heads next to the Senate Finance Committee, is a compromise that largely avoids more controversial changes to how the state’s elections are run. It would establish a ballot curing process, signature verification, ballot tracking and requirements to more regularly update voter rolls, among other elements. It does not include any reforms to how campaigns are financed, nor does it alter the state’s ranked-choice voting system. The provisions — salvaged from an unsuccessful 2022 election bill — would allow voters to correct errors on their ballots once they are submitted, allow election workers to more reliably verify the identity of voters, and allow voters to track their by-mail ballots after they are submitted. Sen. Scott Kawasaki, a Fairbanks Democrat who chairs the State Affairs Committee, said the bill is based on his collaboration with Sen. Mike Shower, a Wasilla Republican who chaired the committee last year. Full Article: Lawmakers advance bipartisan election bill to implement ballot curing, signature verification

Alaska: Mat-Su assembly bans voting machines for borough elections starting next year | Sean Maguire/Anchorage Daily News

In what is apparently a first for Alaska, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly passed an ordinance this week that will prohibit the use of voting tabulation machines for borough elections, starting next year. The new Mat-Su ordinance, approved Tuesday night, caps off a months-long effort from a group of residents determined to ban the use of voting machines spurred on by false claims of election fraud. Last month, the Assembly unanimously voted to use a hand-count to verify the results of the Nov. 8 borough election, but voting machines will still be used. Borough officials determined that it would be a “great risk” to stop using machines and mandate hand-counting for this year’s borough election because there would be inadequate time “to properly prepare for a change of this magnitude,” according to a memo filed with the legislation. Instead, those changes are set to be in place for next November’s municipal election. The new ordinance will require hand counting of ballots on election night at each of the borough’s 41 precincts, with election workers calling results in, instead of counting taking place at the borough office in Palmer. Some assembly members raised concerns that transporting ballots before they are counted could increase the risk of vote tampering and fraud. No other boroughs appear to have taken similar steps, according to the Alaska Municipal League and the Mat-Su borough clerk. Full Article: Mat-Su assembly bans voting machines for borough elections starting next year

Alaska rejected more than 7,500 ballots in the US House special primary. Here’s why. | Wesley Early/Alaska Public Media

More than 7,500 ballots were rejected in the special primary election to fill the remainder of the late Congressman Don Young’s term, according to the final vote tally. That’s a statewide rejection rate of 4.55%, double the rejection rate from the 2020 primary. The final ballot rejection rate in rural Alaska communities was even higher, with about 1 in 8 ballots not being counted. The primary was Alaska’s first statewide by-mail election. According to a report from the Division of Elections, the biggest reason for rejections was a lack of a witness signature, accounting for more than a third of rejected ballots. Roughly 25% of ballots were rejected because they were postmarked or handed in after the deadline, while a fifth weren’t counted because the ballot didn’t have a numerical identifier, like a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a voter’s social security number. State Division of Elections spokeswoman Tiffany Montemayor says while officials are concerned any time they have to reject a ballot, they’re bound by state law. “If there is not a voter signature, a voter identifier, a witness signature and a postmark on or before Election Day the ballot cannot count,” Montemayor said. “These provisions have been in place for decades.” Generally, rural Alaska — communities off the road system with populations that tend to be majority Alaska Native — had the highest rejection rates at around 13.74%. More than half of those rejections were because of a lack of witness signature. Full Article: Alaska rejected more than 7,500 ballots in the US House special primary. Here's why. - Alaska Public Media

Alaska Supreme Court reverses lower court decision, allowing certification of U.S. House special primary results | Iris Samuels/Anchorage Daily News

The Alaska Supreme Court on Saturday reversed a lower court ruling that would have delayed the certification of U.S. House primary election results until visually impaired voters were given “a full and fair opportunity to vote independently, secretly and privately.” The state appealed the Superior Court’s decision to the Alaska Supreme Court soon after the lower court ruled in favor of a request from the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights to ensure visually impaired voters are given adequate voting access. “Where the Division has — and continues — to discriminate and effectively disenfranchise a population of voters on the basis of their disability, the law requires that it must be ordered to cease such a practice immediately, without regard to the ‘cascading’ consequences,” attorneys for the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights wrote in their filing to the Supreme Court. The commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Supreme Court decision. Attorneys for the state argued that that delaying the certification of election results would have far-reaching consequences on the election. It would require delaying the special general election, currently scheduled on Aug. 16, to a later date, meaning Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat would remain vacant for a longer period. It would also force that election — the state’s first under ranked choice voting — to be held entirely by mail.

Full Article: Alaska Supreme Court reverses lower court decision, allowing certification of U.S. House special primary results

Alaska commission asks court to stop certification of U.S. House primary election, alleging failure to accommodate visually impaired voters | Iris Samuels/Anchorage Daily News

The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights is suing the lieutenant governor and the Division of Elections over what it says is a lack of sufficient accommodations for visually impaired voters in the U.S. House primary race — the state’s first all-mail election. In a complaint filed Wednesday in state Superior Court in Anchorage, plaintiff Robert Corbisier, executive director of the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights, alleges that the ballots that were mailed to every registered voter in the state for the special primary election “do not provide an opportunity to visually impaired voters to vote privately, secretly and independently.” The lawsuit names Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer — who oversees elections in Alaska — and Division of Elections director Gail Fenumiai as defendants. Meyer’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit. The Division of Elections deferred comment to the Department of Law. With only three days to go until the Saturday voting deadline, the commission is asking for the certification of election results to be delayed until “visually impaired Alaska voters are given full and fair opportunity” to vote. On Wednesday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Una Gandbhir granted a motion for expedited consideration of the request. A hearing hadn’t been scheduled as of late Wednesday, according to online court system records.

Full Article: Alaska commission asks court to stop certification of U.S. House primary election, alleging failure to accommodate visually impaired voters

Alaska Judge orders delay in certification of US House special primary; state plans appeal | Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News

An Alaska state judge ruled Friday that the results of the special U.S. House primary election could not be certified until visually impaired voters are given “a full and fair opportunity to vote independently, secretly and privately.” The state immediately said it was planning an appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court. The ruling, from Anchorage Superior Court Judge Judge Una Gandbhir, came after arguments earlier in the day in a lawsuit filed earlier this week by the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights against the Alaska Division of Election and Lt. Gov. Keven Meyer, who oversees the division. The commission asserted that the primary, which is the state’s first all-mail election, does not provide visually impaired voters in the state adequate voting access. The order comes just a day before the Saturday voting deadline. It could upend a plan to hold the special general election on Aug. 16 and force an all-mail general election, according to the Division of Elections. The ramifications of the court decision on the ongoing election were not immediately clear. “No court should consider lightly an injunction that potentially upends an ongoing election, but neither can the Court allow flawed state procedures to disenfranchise a group of Alaskans who already face tremendous barriers in exercising a fundamental right,” Gandbhir wrote in her decision to grant the preliminary injunction. The decision does not specify what giving visually impaired voters “a full and fair” opportunity to vote would entail, but Gandbhir wrote she “urges the parties to work together expeditiously to find a timely, appropriate remedy.” Full Article: Judge orders delay in certification of Alaska’s US House special primary; state plans appeal | Nation | fltimes.com

Alaska: Cyber review finds government websites ‘critically vulnerable’ to hackers | Linda F. Hersey/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

The state of Alaska is not keeping up with best practices for protecting its computer systems, according to an independent cyber review that found problems with patching software, maintaining certificates and securing web pages. Burke Stephenson, a consultant with Cybersec Innovation Partners, recently submitted the 28-page review to the joint Senate State of Affairs and Judiciary committees. The state government’s web infrastructure is in “a critically vulnerable position,” according to the findings. The report pointed to problems on public web pages available to anyone with a computer and internet access. Stephenson’s testimony before the joint Senate committee prompted lawmakers togo into executive session. They cited concerns about conveying sensitive information to cybercriminals for the decision to gointo the private meeting. But Stephenson said in public testimony the risks are readily known to hackers, as they are vulnerabilities that persist on state government public websites. He described the problems, which involve system maintenance and upkeep, as prevalent not just to the state of Alaska but across governments and the private sector.

Full Article: Cyber review finds government websites 'critically vulnerable' to hackers | Alaska News | newsminer.com