Palmer prepares for October elections

PALMER — The Palmer City Council interviewed one of their candidates for the vacant City Clerk position at a special meeting on Aug. 24. The city administration has prepared to run the October local elections without a permanent clerk, by allowing a previous local clerk with experience to handle the election.

Manager John Moosey also noted a number of significant hires, promoting John Prevost in the Fire Department and hiring former Palmer Moose hockey legend Cotton Gore as the Community Development Recreational Operations Supervisor. With previous experience as the Capital Projects Director for the Mat-Su Borough, Jude Bilafer was hired to replace Chris Nall as the Director of Public Works. The interviews for the vacant Clerk position are ongoing.

The Council also heard an update from Moosey on new election machines during the regular meeting on August 24.

“I spoke to somebody on election security, election integrity and we know we have a good plan and good protection for the city of Palmer election and we’ll be providing more information on how we’re doing that to give our citizens confidence,” said Moosey. “We were able to get the voting equipment which matches the state voting equipment and the borough voting equipment, the same equipment using COVID money and those machines are made by the Dominion corporation.”

As Moosey finished his sentence, an audible groan was let out by the five people in attendance for the meeting. Former President Donald Trump has been incredibly critical of Dominion voting machines following his loss in the 2020 Presidential election. Moosey reiterated that with a relatively small number of votes to be cast in the Palmer council elections, hand-counting would be possible.

“They are what is used by the state, they are what is used by the Mat-Su Borough and they are what has been recommended and so that is the situation for us and we are determined to make sure that those machines will work in accuracy,” said Moosey. “We have good election judges, we have an experienced election judge coming into run the election and I do not see how at this point in time any shenanigans can be played with the city of Palmer election.”