New election pamphlets in the mail

MAT-SU -- Valley residents in House District 12 will soon be receiving new, updated versions of the Alaska Division of Elections official election pamphlet in the coming days, the second election pamphlet that will have been distributed for the November election.

Elections staff realized shortly after the election packets were distributed last week that the election district list had not been fully updated since the Alaska Redistricting Board's plan went into effect.

According to information from Election Project Coordinator Virginia Breeze and a press release from the department, John Harris' House District 12 was apparently the only Valley district affected by the mistake. Breeze explained that, during the redistricting effort, many house district numbers changed. Not all of those changes were made in the information that went into the election packets, however.

"There is a table in the voter registration system," Breeze said. "It had old districts in it and that button just wasn't pushed to update it."

Breeze said, for example, that House Districts 33 and 34, prior to redistricting, were the northeast Fairbanks and North Pole and Denali districts. Now, she said, they're the Kenai/Soldotna and rural Kenai districts. Voters receiving the pamphlets in the new Kenai districts received ballot information for elections taking place in Fairbanks.

Breeze said as soon as the error was noticed, a call was put in to Eagle Web Press in Salem, Ore., the company that was the low bidder on the pamphlet printing project. The company, she said, was very quick to respond and was readying the plates for another round of printing within an hour of the call. Breeze added that she had just been notified Wednesday that the printing was running ahead of schedule. Elections Director Janet Kowalski was on her way back from Oregon Wednesday, after a flight to oversee the corrections.

Breeze said the mistake will be a costly one. Although the reprint was estimated at $95,000, Breeze said the actual cost may be slightly over that amount. When asked if the division had contemplated reprinting amended supplements to the pamphlet, Breeze said that option didn't appear to be as fast or as user-friendly for voters.

"This was the fastest way to get the books to voters," Breeze said. "We wanted to get it under control."

Division officials are hoping a supplemental appropriation will not be required to cover the cost of printing.

"There is a redistricting budget that we were working with and it was generous," Breeze said. "But we don't know if they'll cover it."

Kowalski, in the press release, said the printing is being done as fast as possible.

"I want to apologize for the mix-up, which will be corrected as soon as next week with an expedited printing and mailing of the correct pamphlets," Kowalski wrote.

Breeze, Wednesday, said voters looking for the correct information can find it online. The guide is available on the Internet at www.elections.state.ak.us. Correct versions of the pamphlet are also available at local Legislative Information Offices and area libraries. She added that the mistake, for the division of elections, is a relative rarity.

"We do so many things right," Breeze said. "I suppose eventually, something would happen."