Big Lake man plans election challenge

MAT-SU -- Big Lake resident Roger Gay plans to have his official notice of election contest filed in Palmer Superior Court tomorrow.

Gay, in his contest, states that House Bill 193, the bill signed into law that establishes a closed primary, must be broadly interpreted and should not limit how many primary elections in which a voter wishes to participate. Interpreting the bill to restrict voters to one primary, Gay alleges, should be grounds to declare the law unconstitutional.

Gay's contest charges that Gov. Tony Knowles, Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer and Janet Kowalski, the director of the Division of Elections, are responsible for misconduct in relation to the election. Gay's contest states they conducted the election "with intentional malconduct, fraud, and or corruption."

He goes on to state that the way the election was handled changed the outcome of the election by discouraging voter turnout, impairing voters' right to privacy and compelling people to refrain from voting in the election. Gay also charges that the Republican and Democratic parties, acting together, conspired to create HB 193 in an attempt to exclude unaffiliated Alaska voters.

Although Gay's contest already has the 10 signatures of registered voters required by Alaska Statute to file an election contest, he said Thursday he'd be happy to add other people's names to the list of displeased voters. Gay invited others who were not satisfied with the new closed primary to add their names to the document when it is filed in Palmer Superior Court Monday.

"Anyone that would like to sign on may be allowed to do so," Gay said. "If anybody else has their own separate complaint, it only costs a hundred bucks and 10 voter signatures to file."

Gay said he wouldn't be on hand to do the actual filing, as he was leaving to help build a house for an acquaintance in Washington. Although, by state statute, the case will likely be decided before he gets back, he said he's not worried that he will miss anything.

"Everything that has to be said is in my complaint," Gay said.

Kowalski said as of Thursday no election contests had been filed. She added, however, that several voters had requested information about filing an election contest, so more contests may be filed before the deadline.

"People do tend to file at the last minute," Kowalski said.

The election contest filing deadline is set for 10 days after the most recent election is certified. The primary was certified on Sept. 18, so the deadline would have been set for Saturday. Kowalski said the division agreed to extend it to Monday to accommodate voters.

When contests are filed, Kowalski said, the court handles the contests on an expedited basis and makes a preliminary review of the document to determine whether the concern is legitimate.

"I don't have to be right, I just have to have a legitimate concern," Gay said.

The contest is then given to the division for a review and a schedule is determined shortly thereafter.

Kowalski said Gay's case, assuming it is filed Monday, will be the second election contest the state has dealt with this year. In the Haines borough, she said, voters contested a special election held to determine whether the city and borough of Haines should be consolidated into one governmental entity. By and large, she said, contests are rare. She added that each case is handled with care.

"I just have the best confidence that the courts will take a very serious look at the issues," Kowalski said.