(103) stories found containing 'Alaska Division of Elections'


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  • Alaska may quit nationwide effort that helps maintain accurate voter rolls

    Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News|Mar 15, 2023

    Newly appointed Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher said last Thursday that she was considering severing ties with a nonprofit that helps maintain voter rolls nationwide, after several Republican-led states announced earlier this month their intention to pull out of the effort. Beecher told state lawmakers she was evaluating Alaska’s membership in the organization during a presentation to the Senate State Affairs Committee. She cited the cost of the program as a reason for leaving despite the benefits it provides. Her c...

  • Wrangell High School 1980 graduate named state elections director

    Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News|Feb 22, 2023

    Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom on Feb. 15 appointed a longtime state employee and Republican Party supporter to lead the Alaska Division of Elections. Carol Beecher, who led the state's child support enforcement division for the past nine years, will now administer Alaska's elections. Her first day was Feb. 15. Beecher grew up at a logging camp on Zarembo Island and graduated from Wrangell High School in 1980, according to the lieutenant governor's office. She succeeds Gail Fenumiai, the division's...

  • Budget deficit grows as governor proposes spending to fix problems

    Sean Maguire, Anchorage Daily News|Feb 22, 2023

    Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s amended budget unveiled Feb. 15 attempts to address crisis areas in state public services, with the additional spending driving the anticipated budget deficit past $400 million. The proposed budget for the next fiscal year is updated from his initial proposed budget announced in December. At that time, Dunleavy’s largely flat spending proposal for services had a $322 million deficit. The largest single expense in the governor’s proposed budget is $2.5 billion for a Permanent Fund dividend at roughly $3,900 per person this...

  • State Supreme Court rules legislator met residency requirement to serve

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Feb 1, 2023

    The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld the disputed residency eligibility of Anchorage Rep. Jennie Armstrong to serve in the Legislature. In a decision issued Jan. 13, four days before the Legislature convened, three of the court’s justices voted 2-1 to uphold a lower-court decision in Armstrong’s favor on the residency question. The justices did not provide an immediate explanation for their decision; one will be published in the coming months. The Supreme Court decision was the result of a lawsuit filed by Liz Vazquez, who lost to Armstrong by...

  • Postal delay prevents vote counting in six rural villages

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Dec 14, 2022

    Ballots from six rural Alaska villages were not fully counted in Alaska’s November elections, the Division of Elections said. A division official said the U.S. Postal Service failed to deliver them to the state election headquarters before the election was certified on Nov. 30. “You’ll need to contact the USPS to find out why there were some that never arrived — as we were told from poll workers, everything had been mailed,” Tiffany Montemayor, the division’s public relations manager, said by email on Dec. 2. As a result, 259 voters in S...

  • State elections director retires; boss says misinformation takes toll on workers

    Anchorage Daily News|Dec 14, 2022

    Alaska’s top elections administrator left her job and retired last week, after overseeing the state’s first ranked-choice elections. Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai, 60, has held the job since 2019, when she was appointed by former Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer. She previously served as the state’s elections director between 2008 and 2015, and is a 20-year veteran of administering Alaska’s elections. Meyer, who announced his retirement from politics late last year and was replaced by Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom on Dec. 5, attributed Fenumia...

  • Republican and Democratic state senators organize in coalition

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Nov 30, 2022

    Seventeen of Alaska’s 20 state senators and senator-elects have banded together to form a bipartisan majority coalition that members promise will be moderate and consensus-focused. Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican and veteran lawmaker known as a moderate, will be president, returning to the role he held from 2009 to 2012. “It’s a pleasure for me to announce that we have a very healthy majority and we’ve found a way to share responsibilities between all of us,” Stevens said at an Anchorage news conference late Friday. Cathy Giessel, a Republica...

  • Just two people charged with voter fraud in Alaska's 2020 election

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Nov 30, 2022

    A woman accused of voting illegally in both Alaska and Florida during the 2020 elections will face charges in a Florida court on Dec. 8, according to online court records. When Cheryl-Ann Leslie is arraigned on felony counts of casting more than one ballot, she will become just the second person charged with voter fraud related to Alaska’s 2020 election. Despite claims by some Alaskans that fraudulent voting changed the state’s election results two years ago, no evidence of fraud on that scale has been uncovered by investigators. After the 202...

  • Dunleavy, Murkowski, Peltola headed to victory today

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Nov 23, 2022

    All three incumbents likely clinched victory in Alaska’s statewide elections when the Alaska Division of Elections updated vote count results on Friday with thousands of additional absentee, questioned and early ballots from this fall’s general election. Final unofficial results will not be available until 4 p.m. Wednesday, when the division implements the state’s new ranked-choice sorting system, but voting trends have made the results clear in most races. With 264,994 votes counted, incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy had 50.3% of the v...

  • Murkowski, Peltola wait for final count, but both appear headed to re-election

    Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon|Nov 16, 2022

    Alaskans may have decided to re-elect Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola to Congress, but the final outcome will not be known until the last ballots are tallied next week and, in one or both races, ranked-choice voting is factored into the decision. Murkowski, a Republican who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, has been the target of ire from Trump and from hard-liner conservatives. She trailed conservative Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka by a small margin, 91,205 to 94,138, as of Monday (42.84% to 44.22%). But the...

  • Dunleavy, Tshibaka, Palin receive most votes in Wrangell

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Nov 16, 2022

    Wrangell voters cast their ballots to re-elect Gov. Mike Dunleavy and to toss out congressional incumbents Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Mary Peltola. While a majority of Alaskans also voted for Dunleavy, though by a slightly smaller margin than in Wrangell, the statewide count gives Murkowski and Peltola solid odds to re-election. The Alaska Division of Elections will announce final vote counts and ranked-choice voting results on Nov. 23. Statewide, as of Monday, Dunleavy was ahead of challengers former Anchorage Democratic state Rep. Les Gara...

  • Tshibaka says election might come down to 'recounts and lawsuits'

    Iris Samuels, Wrangell Sentinel|Nov 16, 2022

    In the days following last Tuesday’s election, U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka joined other Trump-endorsed Republican candidates around the country casting unfounded doubt on election results, despite the fact that Alaska election officials are still counting thousands of absentee ballots and have not reported widespread problems in voting. “Our war is not over yet,” Tshibaka said last Wednesday in a podcast interview with Steve Bannon, who previously advised then-President Donald Trump. “This might come down to things like recount...

  • Justice Department election monitors visit Sitka as part of nationwide check

    The Associated Press and Sitka Sentinel|Nov 16, 2022

    The U.S. Department of Justice dispatched officials to 64 election jurisdictions in 24 states to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws in last week’s midterm elections — including Sitka, Bethel, Dillingham and the Kusilvak Census Area in Western Alaska. The election monitors included lawyers from the Justice Department civil rights division and U.S. attorney’s offices across the nation. Federal authorities said such monitoring is a regular occurrence around election day, but this year especially civil rights groups and others have...

  • Election officials advise final vote count not until Nov. 23

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Nov 9, 2022

    Results will be slow, even in races that don’t use ranked-choice voting, Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer and Gail Fenumiai, head of the Alaska Division of Elections, said at a press conference last week. Through Sunday, just two days before the election, more than 64,000 Alaskans had already cast early or absentee votes, according to figures published by the Division of Elections. Many of those votes, plus others that come in before Election Day on Nov. 8, won’t be counted until after polls close. Meyer said Alaskans should be prepared. “I know that...

  • Pierce will stay in race for governor, despite sexual harassment lawsuit

    Alaska Beacon|Nov 2, 2022

    Republican governor candidate Charlie Pierce confirmed on Oct. 26 that he will continue his campaign despite a lawsuit accusing him of sexually harassing a Kenai Peninsula Borough employee while he served as borough mayor. “We’re in this race to the very end,” he said during a broadcast of KSRM-AM radio’s “Sound Off” program. Pierce, at 6.6% of the vote in the August primary, is far behind the other three candidates in the Nov. 8 general election for governor. “I think the honorable thing to do is finish what you start, and that’s what I...

  • U.S. House candidates talk in TV debate about partisanship

    Becky Bohrer, Associated Press|Nov 2, 2022

    Alaska U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in a televised debate Oct. 26 called partisanship a threat to the country as the Democrat sought to make the case for reelection to the seat she’s held since September against challengers including Republican Sarah Palin. Peltola beat Palin and Republican Nick Begich in a ranked-choice August special election to fill the remainder of the late Republican Rep. Don Young’s term. Those three, along with Libertarian Chris Bye, are running in the Nov. 8 election for a full two-year term that starts in January. This ele...

  • State Supreme Court explains decision upholding ranked-choice voting

    Sean Maguire, Anchorage Daily News|Nov 2, 2022

    The Alaska Supreme Court issued a full opinion on Oct. 21, explaining why it upheld the state’s new ranked-choice voting and open-primary system as constitutional in January. The five justices issued a brief order at the time in favor of the new system that was narrowly approved by voters in a 2020 ballot measure. It was issued quickly to confirm to the Alaska Division of Elections that the new voting system would be used this year. Alaska is the second state after Maine to implement ranked-choice voting, in which voters are asked to rank f...

  • Mail-in ballots require a second postage stamp

    Sean Maguire, Anchorage Daily News|Oct 26, 2022

    Alaskans voting by mail will need to put 84 cents worth of postage on their ballot envelopes to send them back by post to the state Division of Elections. One Forever stamp is currently worth 60 cents, meaning a second stamp would be needed to mail absentee ballots. Voters are required to use the correct amount of postage when mailing a ballot, but the U.S. Postal Service has a policy to still deliver ballots even if postage is unpaid or if there is insufficient postage. Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai said the postage costs were...

  • Mat-Su bans voting machines in borough elections starting next year

    Sean Maguire, Anchorage Daily News|Oct 12, 2022

    In what is apparently a first for Alaska, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly passed an ordinance last week that will prohibit the use of voting tabulation machines for borough elections, starting next year. The new Mat-Su ordinance, approved Oct. 4, 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...

  • Judge says Oath Keepers' member likely ineligible to serve in Legislature

    Sean Maguire, Anchorage Daily News|Sep 28, 2022

    An Anchorage judge said last Thursday that based on the limited evidence presented, Wasilla Republican Rep. David Eastman is likely ineligible to hold public office, but his name will stay on the general election ballot until a trial scheduled for December is held. Former Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assemblymember Randall Kowalke, who filed the lawsuit, has argued Eastman’s membership in the Oath Keepers runs afoul of the state Constitution’s disloyalty clause, which bars a person from holding public office in Alaska who advocates for the overthr...

  • Supporters cheer Peltola's victory for 'opening doors' for Alaska Natives

    Zachariah Hughes, Anchorage Daily News|Sep 7, 2022

    As a young teenager growing up in Bethel, Nikki Corbett got her first paid gig from Mary Peltola. "I babysat her oldest," said Corbett, who took care of Peltola's eldest son. Corbett, who lives on the Kenai Peninsula and is raising children of her own now, was one of the many Indigenous Alaskans from around the state who flooded social media with exuberant messages, reflections and recollections in the hours after Peltola's victory in Alaska's special U.S. House election was announced. The...

  • Illegal firing lawsuit against Dunleavy will extend into 2023

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Aug 31, 2022

    A legal dispute that began when Gov. Mike Dunleavy took office in 2018 will not be resolved before this year’s gubernatorial election. Last week, a federal judge set a 2023 timeline for a trial to determine financial damages in a case involving Libby Bakalar, one of four state employees who sued Dunleavy, his former chief of staff Tuckerman Babcock and the state after being illegally fired when Dunleavy took office. Babcock is now a candidate for state Senate and Dunleavy is running for reelection. The state has settled with three of the p...

  • Denying election results doesn't help the country

    The Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 24, 2022

    The 2020 presidential election is over. Multiple judges in multiple federal and state courts have ruled multiple times against frivolous claims of voter fraud, conspiracy, computer hacking and criminal intent. Courts, prosecutors, most members of Congress, even former President Donald Trump’s attorney general all agreed there is no evidence that the election was stolen. No matter how much some want to believe otherwise, Joe Biden was legitimately elected president of the United States. Certainly, he could lose the job in 2024, but in an e...

  • Wrangell voters report few problems with first try at ranked-choice voting

    Caroleine James, Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 24, 2022

    Election day went smoothly in Wrangell on Aug. 16 despite the transition to ranked-choice ballots. Voters interviewed left the polling place with a largely positive impression of the new system. This was the first election in Alaska with the new voting system, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. The system, adopted by voters in a 2020 ballot initiative, is intended to reduce political polarization and negative campaigning, though critics argue that it could complicate the voting process unnecessarily. Alaska is one...

  • Court decides it's 3 candidates, not 4, after Gross drops out

    Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press|Jun 29, 2022

    The Alaska Supreme Court on Saturday upheld a lower court ruling that will keep Republican Tara Sweeney off the ballot for the August special election in Alaska’s U.S. House race. In a brief written order, the high court on an appeal affirmed the decision of Superior Court Judge William Morse, who agreed on Friday with a decision by Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai to not advance Sweeney, the fifth-place finisher in the June 11 primary, to the special election ballot after the third-place finisher suddenly dropped out. The o...

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