By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
The campaign of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola sued the Alaska Division of Elections on Friday in an attempt to make public the names of Alaskans whose absentee ballots have been rejected by the division.
The suit was filed Friday in Anchorage Superior Court by Alaskans For Mary, and it named the Division, its director and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom as defendants.
Alaskans for Mary has asked for expedited consideration and is requesting both an injunction and temporary restraining order that could expose the names before the election is certified later this month.
In an emailed statement about the lawsuit, Alaskans for Mary said, “We are confident that Mary will win this race. The campaign is ensuring transparency, timeliness, and accuracy as the counting process continues and every Alaskan’s voice is heard.”
According to the suit, the campaign filed a public records request seeking “a copy of the absentee register showing the accept or reject code for each absentee ballot … or any other documents sufficient to show the identities of voters whose absentee ballots … have been rejected as well as the reasons for each rejection.”
The request by Alaskans for Mary — the main organization boosting Peltola’s challenge to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan — comes just days after the group argued in federal court in a different case that “Alaskans’ bedrock rights (include) the right to cast secret
ballots, the right to cast ballots that will not be retroactively invalidated, and the right to be
treated equally to other voters.”
In an emailed statement, the Alaska Department of Law — which is representing the Division of Elections in court — said the campaign is “seeking access to preliminary absentee ballot information that the Division of Elections has long treated as confidential and that Alaska law does not require the Division to release.”
According to exhibits filed alongside the lawsuit, the Peltola campaign began seeking the absentee ballot information in October, before Election Day.
That’s before most of the decisions in the request were made.
Division of Elections staff make an initial determination on whether or not to accept an absentee ballot, but a final decision isn’t made until after Election Day because the division checks to see whether an absentee voter went to the polls instead.
In addition, Alaska allows absentee ballots to arrive as late as Nov. 18, meaning the division’s multipartisan review boards have not yet decided whether to reject or accept many ballots.
According to the exhibits in the complaint, “Alaskans for Mary seeks the relevant records to safeguard an accurate ballot count and ensure that Peltola’s supporters are not unlawfully disenfranchised.”
But under state law, the Alaska Division of Elections isn’t required to reveal whether an absentee ballot is rejected until after the election is certified.
Each election, the division posts a list that shows how many absentee ballots were rejected and for what reason. Voters whose ballots were rejected receive letters explaining why.
Those don’t come until weeks after the final result is known.
“Releasing preliminary information in the manner sought by the lawsuit would create additional burdens during ballot processing and could delay the timely counting of votes. The Division has protected this information for years and will ask the court to protect it too,” the Department of Law said.
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