Alaska

Think we have problems in SF with municipal elections?

l3wis April 25, 2012 7Comments

Anchorage just had a doozy . . .

Embattled Anchorage Election Clerk Seen Partying With ‘Winning’ Mayor from Her Disastrous Election

Oh, neato. Remember that recent disastrous Anchorage, Alaska election I told you about, during which voters were turned away all across the city because not enough ballots were distributed, and where the Deputy Municipal Clerk Jacqueline Duke, responsible for ballot and voting machine distribution, admitted to me that she had told poll workers not to worry if they found voting machine security seals broken on the morning of the election?

Aside from Prop 5, a ballot measure which would have extended anti-discrimination protection to the LGBT community — which a pre-election poll predicted would win by 9 points (before the Diebold computer tabulators reported that it lost by 16 points) — Anchorage’s Mayor Dan Sullivan was also on the ballot that day.

Unlike Prop 5, however, the anti-Prop 5 mayor reportedly won, according to the Diebold op-scan tabulators, by almost the same exact margin that the same pre-election poll had predicted he would.

And, whaddaya know? There’s Mayor Sullivan himself, in the photo above, seen celebrating on St. Patrick’s Day with none other than his old employee [PDF] turned Anchorage Deputy Municipal Clerk Jacqueline Duke! (She’s the one on the right.)

Neat, eh? I wonder why, according to a source of Alaska radio host, blogger and election integrity advocateShannyn Moore, Duke scrubbed that photo from her Facebook page recently. I tried to find out and get confirmation, but Duke didn’t respond to the email I sent to the address she gave me when we spoke. As a matter of fact, according to The Mudflats’ Linda Kellen Biegel, who tried to ask Duke a question at a recent Election Commission meeting called to investigate the continuing mess, the Deputy Municipal Clerk is no longer allowed to speak to anyone in the media.

Wonder why. Was it something she said?

Our recent election is not just a kinda, sorta, it happened accidentally thingy, as we are led to believe by city clerk’s office. This is an actual organized operation throughout the United States to take control of local election operations and then to limit who can and will vote. Debra Owen was not fired for any incompetence, but most likely for her competence. Salesmen like Huether, Karsky, Erpenbach or Diamond Jim do not want anyone around who would question their actions. By ridding themselves of competent advisors, they will always have deniability. The new Clerk will be thrown under the bus at first chance as a scapegoat.

Look at all the city management / department heads and try to find the level of competence / incompetence. No successfully run business would keep most of them in their positions. A successful business person trying to make a business successful wants innovation and daily competence. A ‘wannabe’ successful manager of a business wants individuals working with them who will give them “High Fives” or “yes” answers for schemes they can get by with.

When I propose work for a potential client, I interview them as much as they interview me. I want to see in their face before I sign on or if they are a schemer-follower manager or an innovation-leader manager. Guess which we have as a mayor / council majority?

(The Big ‘B’ contributed to this post)