ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Anchorage election officials held a canvassing meeting Tuesday afternoon that produced more numbers from the city’s troubled electionsearlier this month -- as well as a nearly denied opportunity for one East Anchorage voter to challenge the rejection of her vote.
The municipal Election Commission started its meeting at City Hall at 1:30 p.m., receiving a report on the election (PDF) that listed 14,043 legitimate absentee and questioned ballots yet to be counted. An additional 609 ballots were rejected for a variety of causes, including 159 from voters registered outside the city, 187 from unregistered voters and 142 who registered to vote less than 30 days before the April 3 elections.
Once the commission had received the report, with nobody waiting to speak, it adjourned about two minutes after the meeting began -- faster than Karli Kay could arrive at the meeting to ask that her vote be counted and testify before the commission. Kay spoke with Channel 2 last week about a letter she received last week (PDF) from Municipal Clerk Barbara Gruenstein’s office saying that because she had moved across town less than 30 days before the election, her questioned ballot had not been counted.
