Alaska: New Allegations Of Fraud, Coercian In Alaskan Senate Race

From Floyd Reports:

Exclusive: New Allegations of Fraud, Coercion in Alaskan Senate Race




Posted on November 12, 2010 by Ben Johnson by Ben Johnson







This author has received an internal campaign report tracking more allegations of impropriety in the Alaska Senate Race between Tea Party favorite, Republican candidate Joe Miller, and write-in candidate, incumbent Lisa Murkowski. The communication reveals three separate complaints made to the Miller campaign:



1.Village Voters: A person has heard of villages using one person to vote or fill in the write-in for several hundred people.

…Do we have the personnel or resources to check handwriting and do they keep each village bundled together? If we were to find out that one person voting has occurred, would they be thrown out? I have asked the person to allow us to use [his/her] name and the name of what villages we should be concerned about. [This person] said that we should be concerned about all villages, especially the ones that only have 300 or less in population…



As I noted earlier this week, several villages with a high Native population voted for “write-in” over Miller by margins as high as 120-0.



A second report involves a commercial fisherman who spoke of an Alaskan company using “company vehicles to drive employees up to vote and giving them all Lisa [Murkowski] bracelets. He felt that many of them were not even American citizens, let alone registered Alaskan voters.”



A third allegation comes from “a high level” employee who was instructed “to bring up ballots and Lisa bracelets to all the workers on his oil rigs.” The communication notes the source, who wishes to remain anonymous, “is very concerned about losing [his or her] job.”



All three allegations seem highly plausible. The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) has asked the Department of Justice to send in an election observer in part out of concerns over Native illiteracy. Native regional corporations were the financial heart-and-soul of the Murkowski write-in campaign. And federal contractors have been caught on tape encouraging their employees to vote for Lisa Murkowski to keep the federal money flowing northward.



This author reported earlier this week on a sworn, notarized statement made by a poll watcher in Fairbanks, Alaska, that one precinct’s lone ballot box “was unsecured in that the electoral judges had access to the inside of the ballot box with a key.” Further, “The ballot counter on the ballot box was inoperable from poll opening to 8:30 am.” The implication is that the box could have been “stuffed” at any time prior to that.



Meanwhile, Alaskan election officials continue to count write-in ballots for Lisa Murkowski that contain a misspelling, on the grounds that “voter intent” trumps the wording of the state’s Election Clause. However, all challenged ballots are being segregated from undisputed ballots in anticipation of a lawsuit from the Miller campaign.