| August 25, 2006 Editor’s Desk by Aaron Selbig, insurgent49 It’s been an untrustworthy week here at Insurgent Headquarters. Last Monday, the day before the big primary election, my wife went into City Hall in downtown Anchorage to vote early (she gets so excited about exercising her democratic right that she just can’t wait). When she approached the voting station, she informed the poll worker that she wanted the combined ballot (the one with everyone on it but Republicans). The woman working the table gave her a look of astonishment and warned, “but, if you take that ballot, you won’t be able to vote for Governor.” It’s not true, of course. The poll worker apparently was not aware that there’s this whole other political party called The Democrats, and they had their own candidates for Governor, Eric Croft and Tony Knowles. These Democrats are so darn sporting, as a matter of fact, that they don’t mind sharing a ballot with the Greens, Libertarians, Alaska Independence Party, etc. Or … did the poll worker in fact know exactly what the combined ballot was all about? Was her shocking display of ineptitude simply a lack of knowledge? Or was it deliberately misleading? Personally, I’d prefer to think it was the former, but there is mounting evidence that something strange is afoot at the Alaska Division of Elections. First, there remain serious questions about the results of the 2004 general election. Last year, the Alaska Democratic Party noticed that, on the state’s website, the numbers were not adding up. In some precincts, for instance, there was in excess of 200% voter turnout. So they asked the Division of Elections to provide them with the ‘central tabulator file’, a complete breakdown of what went on with the state’s Diebold Accuvote machinery during the election. Almost a year later, after much stalling, legal wrangling and a myriad of lame excuses (we’d have to change the passwords!), the Division, headed by Lt. Gov. Loren Leman, still refuses to turn over the files. In the opinion of this voter, that fact alone throws the integrity of the entire Alaska election system into doubt. But it gets worse. On Election Day, the Democrats, who had employed poll watchers at polling stations all over the state, began to get some strange reports. Several were similar to the experience of my wife, where poll workers seemed to be deliberately pushing the Republican ballot on people, even when they had asked for the combined ballot. In some cases, voters who had explicitly asked for the combined ballot were silently handed the Republican ballot anyway. Some of them caught the mistake in time. But how many didn’t? In addition, there were familiar problems of broken down equipment, ballots not being accepted by the scanners, and voters being told inaccurate information concerning where they were allowed to vote. And then there’s the state’s new toy … the Diebold TouchScreen voting machine. Because of a federal mandate, Alaska was required in this election, for the first time, to have the TouchScreen technology in place in every single polling place in the state. Unconcerned about the uncertified verification process in the machines (only the Diebold company has run tests on it), or the numerous cases in other states where hackers armed with a stick drive and a Philips screwdriver were able to hack into the machines, the Division of Elections happily trotted out these new marvels of technology to Alaskan voters with nary a question asked. For the handful of people who had the courage to use them, there were functionality problems with the TouchScreen machines, as well. Now, I know what some of you must be thinking … another liberal conspiracy theory. How could Loren Leman, Randy Ruedrich, or whomever else might be involved, get away with rigging the entire State of Alaska election system? Do you really think that, even if they wanted to, they are even that competent? No, probably not. At least I hope not. I think it’s more likely that what’s going on here is a pervasive incompetence at the Division of Elections. Intentional or not, they just don’t seem to get the fact that all of these problems and inconsistencies with the voting system just don’t look good. In fact, they arouse suspicion. And the reason that suspicion is there is that, unlike the Division, voters take the election process very seriously. We want it to be damn near perfect, as a matter of fact, because there is no more important foundation of democracy than the right to vote. The Alaska Division of Elections needs to understand that, and soon. They need to treat the election process like it is a holy thing. If there is a technical problem, they need to fix it. If there is a security loophole, they need to close it. If there is one Alaska voter who is not sure if his or her vote is being counted and counted properly, that is one too many. If the inconsistencies, technological failures, and poor training of poll workers continues like this into future elections, Alaskan voters (all Alaskan voters, not just us nutty liberals) will begin to lose confidence in the system. The Alaska Division of Elections has some work to do to restore confidence in the job they’re doing. A good place to start would be turning over the voting file from 2004. Aaron Selbig is an activist and media junkie who resides in an undisclosed location in downtown Anchorage. He is the winner of a 2006 Alaska Press Club award for Best Editorial Writing, host of KUDO 1080 AM's 'The Aaron Selbig Show' and a co-founder of Insurgent49. Aaron may be contacted at editor@insurgent49.com |
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