Recall group meets quota

MAT-SU -- The Ogan is So Gone committee passed a hurdle on its way toward launching the first-ever legislator recall in Alaska.

According to committee representatives, the group received word last week from the Alaska Division of Elections it had met and exceeded 1,273 signatures -- the number of registered voters from Senate District H needed to have a valid application for recall of Sen. Scott Ogan, who represents the area.

Laura Glasier, director of the division, said the recall group has exceeded the necessary number of signatures. Her staff is still verifying the signatures, she said, so she was unable to give a final tally of verified signatures.

Bill Marks, a member of the recall group, said he's not surprised they passed the needed number. The group, he said, went by the most recent voter registration list the division had available, and then double-checked their work. He said there was some concern among the group, however, when they learned the division had, shortly after the signatures were gathered, purged their rolls.

"We went through that list two times -- and then we heard they purged their registered voter rolls of 24,000 names," Marks said. "Was that a coincidence?"

Glasier said the recall effort is currently in a holding pattern. She requested that the grounds for recall be reviewed by an independent council. At her request, the Alaska Attorney General's office is working on finding an attorney to do the job.

"It's close, I get that sense," Glasier said of the hiring process. "But I'm not certain how much more time we have. The AG's office wanted to do it as quickly as possible, but they want an attorney who has experience in these kinds of decisions."

When asked if it was customary to hire an independent attorney to review recall grounds, Glasier said she couldn't say.

"This has never been done before, so it's hard to say whether this is normal," Glasier said. State statute, she said, tasks the lieutenant governor with determining whether initiatives or petitions should be on the ballot, but it's her duty to review recalls.

Marks said, after the group received belatedly the news they needed to collect more signatures than originally discussed by the division, he wonders if the process of hiring an independent counsel to review their grounds isn't a stalling tactic.

"I'm just a little bit skeptical," Marks said. "I don't know if it's going to be the last hour of the last day of the last year that they say we've met all the tests -- it seems to me they would have done that [hiring] ahead of time."

Glasier said there is no timeline in Alaska statutes for determining whether the grounds for recall are valid or not.

"There's no statutory timeline," Glasier said. "We're trying to do this as expedited as possible."

Marks said he hopes the process isn't delayed -- there are a lot of Alaskans watching it, he said.

"I think they ought to realize the public is watching this," Marks said, pointing out the group gathered more than 2,000 signatures of voters who are interested in getting a chance to vote on the recall. "We're just waiting with bated breath to see if they play fair."

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.