Assembly approves by mail ballot extension

PALMER — At a special meeting of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly on Monday, the absentee by mail requirement for ballots cast in the Nov. 3 General Election was waived with the passage of Ordinance 20-098.

Deputy Mayor Dan Mayfield made an amendment to his Ordinance that also extended the deadline for absentee ballots to be received in the mail by seven days. In conjunction with the state and national elections, Assembly Districts 4 and 5 are up for election as is Mat-Su Borough School District School Board seats 3 and 6.

“I think it’s appropriate to make sure that we count all the ballots and that we react to our current situation, being that we’re in the time of a covid pandemic and the fact that our mail is not running properly. I think those are legitimate grounds to make sure that we protect a person’s right to vote and the right for their vote to be counted,” said Mayfield.

Mayfield’s ordinance comes on the heels of an Alaska Supreme Court decision that drew many questions from Assembly members to Borough Attorney Nick Spiropolous. Former Assemblyman Jim Sykes also addressed the Assembly prior to Mayfield’s amendment.

“I think this is a good common sense piece of legislation. The state has waived its requirements for witness signatures,” said Sykes. “I think it just makes common sense. We have special situations and we’ve always been about making sure every vote counts and I think we oughta make sure that happens.”

Spiropolous said that Mayfield’s ordinance to suspend the requirement for witness signatures on absentee by mail ballots was written extremely narrowly to mirror the state trial court ruling that was upheld by the supreme court on an emergency basis.

“This is probably a good idea, the amendment, since we are running our election at the same time as the state. I would actually argue it should probably be 10 days but Mr. Haberman raises some very valid points,” said Assemblyman Jesse Sumner. “I would argue that we should change our election law as narrowly as possible this close to an election. We’re at eight days out, it’s probably inadvisable to make changes for this election.”

Assemblywoman Stephanie Nowers questioned Clerk Lonnie McKechnie, clarifying that the deadline extension would only apply to ballots postmarked by Nov. 3, and questioned if it would change the counting process by the Canvass board.

“They go through and they canvass the absentee all at once and if we were to get additional ballots after they got done canvassing the absentee, we’d canvas the additional ballots. Then we’d move forward and we’d canvas the questioned ballots. We count everything at one time, we don’t count things at separate times. It’s all counted on one day,” said McKechnie.

Nowers also questioned Spiropolous about what, if any legal repercussions could befall the Borough if the ordinance passed.

“The extension here before you tonight extends it out from three days to seven days, which means the claim would be ballots received Saturday, Monday and Tuesday should not count,” said Spiropolous. “This ordinance as well is very narrowly tailored to only apply to this year’s election and as the clerk mentioned, it is for absentee by mail ballots that are in fact mailed and not handed in.”

After discussion on the amendment to extend the deadline for the Borough to accept absentee by mail ballots that had been postmarked by Nov. 3 from Nov. 6 until Nov. 10, the vote was tied 3-3 with Assembly members Tam Boeve, Ted Leonard and Sumner voting against and Tim Hale, Nowers and Mayfield in favor.

“Okay I’ll go with the green,” said Mayor Vern Halter.

Halter broke the 3-3 tie and passed the amendment, as Assemblyman George McKee was absent. The vote on the ordinance as a whole passed 4-2 with Boeve, Hale, Mayfield and Nowers in support and Sumner and Leonard in opposition. Borough absentee by mail ballots must still be returned to a ballot drop box or an election official on November 3. With the passage of 20-098, absentee by mail ballots that have been postmarked on Nov. 3 that are received by the borough up until Nov. 10 will be counted.