{"id":20296,"date":"2016-09-23T20:15:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-24T03:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/expedited-nageaks-case-against-state-election-officials-headed-to-trial-tuesday\/"},"modified":"2016-09-23T20:15:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-24T03:15:10","slug":"expedited-nageaks-case-against-state-election-officials-headed-to-trial-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/expedited-nageaks-case-against-state-election-officials-headed-to-trial-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Expedited: Nageak’s case against state election officials headed to trial Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE<\/strong> <\/strong>\u2014 The lawsuit that Rep. Ben Nageak, D-Barrow, filed against Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and Director of Elections Josie Bahnke over the contested House District 40 race will start on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi in a status hearing Friday morning ruled that the trial must begin next week and end no later than Oct. 3 so that the Division of Elections will have proper time to mail ballots ahead of the general election.<\/p>\n

Attorney Stacey Stone, representing Nageak, requested additional time to put together a comprehensive witness list, as rural witnesses must be both properly vetted and logistically organized, continue the discovery process and issue the necessary subpoenas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that absentee voting starts on Oct. 24,\u201d countered Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton-Walsh. \u201cThat means ballots need to be mailed out by Oct. 17 which means we probably need a decision by the Supreme Court by Oct. 14.\u201d <\/p>\n

In order for that to happen however, Guidi would need to make a decision by Oct. 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sort of litigation is always expedited. That is something that the plaintiffs have to embrace when they file a lawsuit like this,\u201d said Paton-Walsh. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe assert that the Division of Elections violated the law,\u201d said Stone. \u201cEssentially they created this issue,\u201d she added, referring to the need to expedite proceedings.<\/p>\n

Tom Amodio, counsel for Dean Westlake, who defeated Negeak by eight votes in the Democrat primary after a recount, said his client supports the state\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

The District 40 race does not have another candidate for the seat, meaning the winner of the primary will be heading to the Legislature next year. The election was marred by improper distribution of ballots, which included some voters being given both the Republican and Democrat ballots.<\/p>\n\n

Contested ballots<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bahnke, Nageak attorney Tim McKeever and Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Bakalar all appeared in court by phone.<\/p>\n

McKeever requested that a dozen \u201cspecial needs ballots\u201d \u2014 submitted by elders of Buckland \u2014 be forwarded so that his team may inspect the originals prior to the start of trial, specifically for unobscured signatures. The judge ordered that copies be forwarded and originals be sent via courier to the Department of Law.<\/p>\n

Referring to the request as a fishing expedition, Paton-Walsh did not understand the concern, saying that redacted copies have already been provided.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why they are particularly concerned about these ballots,\u201d she told the Alaska Journal of Commerce following the status hearing. \u201cI don\u2019t think there is any basis for suspicion about the special needs ballots at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

What happens next<\/strong><\/p>\n

House District 40 has various \u201cabsentee voting in person\u201d locations that need to have ballots available by Oct. 24. If the case is not resolved by the Supreme Court by Oct. 14, Westlake will appear on the ballot, creating potential disenfranchisement, and at the very least, confusion on the part of voters if it turns out that Nageak is the actual candidate, Paton-Walsh explained to the Journal. <\/p>\n

Furthermore, if there needed to be a special election because deadlines were not met, then it becomes an election where it\u2019s just this one race on the ballot. In that case, she said, \u201cfar fewer people turn out to vote\u201d as those who came out for the primary in August may not be able to come to a special election.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Stephanie Prokop is a reporter for the Alaska Journal of Commerce. She can be reached at stephanie.prokop@alaskajournal.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE \u2014 The lawsuit that Rep. Ben Nageak, D-Barrow, filed against Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and Director of Elections Josie Bahnke over the contested House District 40 race will start on Tuesday. Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi in a status hearing Friday morning ruled that the trial must begin next week and end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":20297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20296"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}