District 28 voters, including a candidate for office, receive wrong ballots on Aug. 16

When Steve Menard pulled into Tanaina Elementary School on election day, Aug. 16, he got a surprise. Tanaina is one of three polling places in Mat-Su’s new House District 28 and Menard, who is a candidate for the state House in that district this year, had voted there for years.

But it turned out he wasn’t on the voter registry. At least there.

Menard said, “The volunteers tried to help. They looked me up and found I was supposed to vote at the armory.” meaning the Alacantra National Guard Armory, another polling place.

Puzzled, but trying to understand how there could be confusion with redistricting, Menard drove over to the armory and presented his brand new state-issued voter identification card. He wasn’t on the list there, either.

“At this point I was getting concerned. If this mixup affected more than just me, how many voters would have the patience to drive to a second polling place,” he said.

He also noticed that unlike in past years the voting location was on the state voter ID card.

Phone calls were made. After consultations, Menard said he was actually told to go to Larson Elementary, a third polling site.

“They had me on the list at Larson,” he said. “But then I was handed the wrong ballot.”

Or at least Menard thought it was the wrong ballot. It turned out the ballot was for District 29, Rep. George Rauscher’s House district, he said.

“I wanted the ballot for District 28. I’m a candidate in that district and I live there,” Menard said.

By now it was 10 a.m. Menard’s quest to vote had started at 8 a.m.

More phone calls. More checking of Menard’s address.

Back to the armory, he was told on arrival, his name was still not on the list.

By then the phone calls had set off alarms, and while Menard was at the armory a 12-page supplemental voter list was delivered with corrections.

Menard finally got to vote. He discovered later that several of his neighbors and family who live nearby experienced similar problems.

Janet Hook, who lives near Menard with her husband, Dennis, had a similar experience Aug. 16 but was never given the proper ballot.

“I was forced to vote in a district that I don’t live it. We were stunned. It was certainly not what we were expecting,” Hook said. “My concern is whether our votes were legal, and whether it will be counted.”

Menard said he tried to reach state election officials on the phone and even the lieutenant governor’s office (Lt. Go. Kevin Meyer is in charge of elections) but calls weren’t returned. Given that it was election day and a brand new voting system, ranked-choice, being used for the first time, Menard wasn’t surprised.

“At one point I was told that even if I voted at the wrong polling place my vote would still be counted, but as a ‘questioned’ ballot. But that wouldn’t be counted until days after the election, and I wanted my vote, and those of my family and neighbors, to be counted right away,” he said. “It’s important for people to know who is leading right after election day without having to wait several days.”

Menard is in a tight race for the District 28 House seat with Jesse Sumner, a borough assembly member. The latest count shows only 36 votes separating the two, with Menard leading by a thin margin.

“I was also told, ‘it doesn’t matter,’ who gets how many votes in the primary because all of the names will appear again on the general election ballot,” under the ranked-choice system, Menard said.

In ranked-choice the top four voter-getters in a given race advance to the general election, where they will be ranked to pick a winner. But if there are four or less names in a race, as there are in almost all of the state legislative races, all names are advanced to the general.

Still, even the primary vote results are vital to candidates and supporters because if the counts are inaccurate, even if corrected later, it can result in support being taken away from a candidate who is shown improperly to be trailing.

“It isn’t fair to me or to my opponent Jesse Sumner,” Menard said.

Hook said he would still like an explanation from state election officials as to what went wrong.

“This is about the public knowing there are fair elections, especially in the present political climate,” Menard said. “I hope this gets cleaned up before the general election.”

Aug. 16 Menard got 1,393 votes to Sumner’s 1,357. Two others on the ballot were Jessica Wright, with 734 votes, and Rachel Allen with 627. All four are Republican. All four will appear again on the November ballot under the new voting system.

Gail Fenumiai, Director of Division of Elections, acknowledged problems.

“It was brought to our attention that there were some voters who during the redistricting process were assigned to the incorrect precinct,” Fenumiai said in a text to the Frontiersman. “These changes were made and none of the affected voters had voted at the time it was discovered. The division assigned the voters to the correct precinct and provided updated information to the precincts.”