Alaska House race tied after recount, one ballot in legal contention
7 replies, posted
https://www.adn.com/politics/2018/11/30/recount-leaves-candidates-tied-in-alaska-house-district-1/
JUNEAU — The tallies changed, but it’s still a tie. At the end of a recount Friday, Democratic candidate Kathryn Dodge and Republican candidate Bart LeBon remain tied in the election
for Alaska House District 1. Each gained one vote: The two entered the day tied with 2,661 votes apiece and will end it with 2,662 votes apiece.
If neither candidate challenges the result, state law provides for a winner to be determined “by lot,” a phrase that can mean a coin toss, the drawing of slips of paper, or picking the
highest playing card from a deck. That outcome isn’t likely. Earlier this week, Republican LeBon told the ADN he would prefer to settle the race in a courtroom rather than with a coin
toss.
The results of House District 1 are particularly important because they likely will determine governance of the Alaska House of Representatives.
LeBon held a 79-vote advantage over Dodge on Election Day, but votes counted afterward changed that result. One week after Election Day, officials counted remaining early
votes and questioned ballots. That gave Dodge a 10-vote lead. Three days after that, officials counted absentee ballots that gave LeBon a five-vote lead. After that, an audit by the
bipartisan State Review Board found that seven votes were not read properly by the state’s optical scan machines.
One, for example, was torn, and the machine didn’t read it properly. Other ballots were registered by the machines as blank, but in reality contained votes for one candidate or the other.
Among the seven “undervoted” ballots, six were for Dodge and one was for LeBon. When the new votes were added, the two candidates were tied, and that result stood when the
division certified the election Nov. 26.
Ahead of Friday’s recount, Dodge and her attorney petitioned the division to count two ballots that had been rejected. One had been discovered in a gray secrecy sleeve within the
ballot box normally used for absentee and question ballots. It was unaccompanied the usual information that used to confirm that such a ballot was cast legally.
The other had been declared an “overvote” by Bahnke: The ovals for both LeBon and Dodge had been filled in, but the filled oval for LeBon also had an X through it.
Talking to observers and reporters before the recount began, Bahnke said the ballot in the secrecy sleeve will not be counted. After investigating, division workers found the ballot
should have been destroyed as a mistake on Election Day.
No page is safe from the earthquake.
Wow, just like what happened in Virginia in January of this year.
(Also, the link is giving me a 502 error)
Rather than be GDRP complient, these sites just opt into saying fuck off to EU users.
HR#1 can't come fucking soon enough. Let the republicans try to block it, they'll tack it onto every finance bill out there.
But I, m from the US?
It is working for me now but it wasn't when I was at work. I am behind a proxy located in Ohio at work, but I kinda doubt that is what would cause the issue. Oh well.
