Leman said he's received anecdotal complaints that voters received absentee ballots after Nov. 2. To count, absentee ballots had to have a Nov. 2 or earlier postmark. He said his office is investigating why some ballots arrived late and if the problem is widespread.
"It's been a handful," Leman said. "That's too many."
In one incident, absentee ballots being mailed from Juneau were held up at the post office by a postal clerk because the calculated postage was in error and the clerk needed Division of Elections authorization.
"Our system is almost set up for failure when it comes down to absentee ballots," Leman said.
About 1,000 absentee ballot applications were challenged, Leman said. He blamed those on the Alaska Democratic Party. The party produced its own ballot application, with a return address for the Democrats and not the Division of Elections, which could have delayed applications. Leman said that form also lacked a line for the voter's resident address. The Tony Knowles for U.S. Senate campaign produced a similar absentee ballot application, but Leman said Knowles' campaign had the Division of Elections review its form and it was found acceptable.
Bridget Gallagher, executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, said the Division of Elections also approved the Democrats' absentee ballot application form. She said some of those applications did not include residency information. After the Democrats received complaints about applications going to the party's post office box, Gallagher said she made arrangements for a party representative to meet an elections worker when mail was collected and hand over applications directly to the Division of Elections.
Leman defended his actions regarding Ballot Measure 4, the initiative put forth by Trust the People, the group of legislators and others who organized the initiative petition to change how the governor makes appointments to vacant U.S. Senate seats. From its initial petition to the final wording of the initiative summary, Leman made decisions the group found unacceptable. In each instance, the group went to court and Leman's decisions were overruled.
After the Alaska Legislature passed a law similar to the initiative, Leman removed Ballot Measure 4. The Alaska Supreme Court ordered it back on the ballot. Leman said he thought the Legislature's action and the ballot measure were substantially similar. The only difference is that in the legislative-approved measure the governor could name a temporary replacement before an election was certified. The measure approved by voters makes no provision for the governor to name a temporary replacement.
On the issue of the wording of the ballot measure summary, Leman said he thought he described the initiative objectively.
"I concluded it was fair and accurate," Leman said.
Superior Court Judge Morgan Christen in September ordered Leman to rewrite a summary acceptable to the court and Trust the People -- and to reprint 517,000 ballots at a cost of $295,000, a contract which went to Printworks, a Homer business.
Leman also came under criticism when his chief of staff, Annette Kreitzer, wrote the opposing statement to Ballot Measure 2, the initiative proposing to legalize marijuana. Kreitzer sent her draft to an Anchorage physician, Charles M. Herndon, who edited the statement slightly and put his name to it. An Anchorage Superior Court judge ruled Leman's staff was wrong in writing the opposing statement.
"(Kreitzer) thought she was being helpful," Leman said. "What looked inappropriate was (Herndon) didn't do a substantial rewrite."
Leman acknowledged the challenge of maintaining a line of separation between his partisan role as lieutenant governor and his job of running elections. As an example, he said that while he is confident electronic voting machines can be reliable without a paper trail, that's not the standard that should be applied.
"It's not sufficient that I be confident," Leman said. "The voters of Alaska have to be confident."
This year's election stretched the resources of the Division of Elections, Leman said.
"We had to add extra staff in October when we saw the level of interest," he said. "We had to respond fast."
The previous record for absentee ballot applications was 30,000, Leman said. This year 58,000 applications came in.
Except for a few complaints, such as optical scanning equipment jamming or complaints about poll watchers, the election otherwise went smoothly, he said. Leman visited Anchorage precincts and said he didn't see many long lines. Most voting precincts are set up so there aren't excessive numbers of voters. He said he was surprised to hear of a half-hour to 45-minute wait for the Homer precincts at City Hall.
Leman also spoke of the problem of finding enough workers to staff voting precincts. One solution he mentioned was the Youth Vote Ambassador program, first used this year. Leman said youth ages 16 to 17 were allowed to work at voting precincts.
"That will be an area where we can get into the youth labor pool," he said.
Programs like the Youth Ambassador Program or Youth Court celebrate volunteerism in Alaska.
When asked what the state can do to promote more volunteerism, Leman said, "We have to provide the mechanism for getting involved."
He mentioned his support for faith-based volunteerism -- involving people associated with religious groups.
"We think in the synagogues, the churches, there are people who want to do good," Leman said. "Just by talking about it, we have provided the motivation for others to get involved."
Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.
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