Attorneys for Rep. Benjamin Nageak began their campaign in court Tuesday as the Barrow Democrat challenges the results of the August primary election that saw him unseated by a Democratic challenger from northwest Alaska.<\/p>\n
In an Anchorage courtroom, Nageak attorney Tim McKeever interrogated Division of Elections supervisor Josie Bahnke for several hours, beginning a trial that is expected to last until Monday.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the deadline set by judge Andrew Guidi, who wants to confirm a winner in time to avoid interference with early voting for the Nov. 8 general election.<\/p>\n
After a recount requested by Nageak, the Division of Elections confirmed Sept. 12 that Dean Westlake defeated Nageak on Election Day, 825 votes to 817.<\/p>\n
Nageak responded with a lawsuit declaring \u201cnumerous errors have been made in the primary election recount for House District 40.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVoters in several precincts were improperly, illegally and unconstitutionally deprived of the primary ballot of their choice and the right to have elections properly conducted in accordance with state and federal law,\u201d McKeever\u2019s appeal states.<\/p>\n
McKeever and Nageak face a tall task in convincing Guidi to alter the results of the election. To change the results, they must prove there was a mistake in the conduct of the election, that the mistake amounted to \u201cmalconduct, fraud, or corruption,\u201d and that the malconduct changed the results of the election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an extremely heavy burden on the plaintiffs here,\u201d said Thomas Amodio, Westlake\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n
At the end of the trial, Guidi may \u201cpronounce judgement on which candidate was elected,\u201d Alaska law states, or he may set the election aside and call for a new vote. <\/p>\n
If a new vote takes place, Nageak and Westlake likely would rematch in the general election.<\/p>\n
Much of the first day of the trial was spent establishing what Bahnke knew and when she knew it. McKeever brought up several mistakes by poll workers \u2500 forms not correctly signed, results not reported on time, and most critically, votes cast incorrectly.<\/p>\n
In the community of Shugnak, for example, voters were permitted to cast both Republican and Democratic ballots \u2500 in effect voting twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue is whether or not the election workers purposely disregarded a requirement\u201d in violation of their training, McKeever said.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, McKeever seemed particularly interested in whether a poll worker in the town of Buckland went out and tried to get people to come to the polls to vote.<\/p>\n
He also focused on Bahnke\u2019s actions when she learned about problems in Shugnak. (Westlake and Nageak were both on the Democratic ballot, meaning the results were unlikely to change as a result of the double voting.)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou understood that it was illegal for people to receive more than one ballot?\u201d McKeever asked about Bahnke\u2019s actions after Election Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you understood that 50 people \u2026 received more than one ballot?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When Bahnke didn\u2019t directly answer a question about whether she realized the Shugnak votes were more than the margin between the two candidates, McKeever\u2019s questioning sharpened. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut you understand math, right?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
The state will have a chance to question Bahnke when the trial resumes at 8:40 a.m. today in Anchorage. According to court documents, McKeever plans to call 12 witnesses. The state expects to call five, including Nageak.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at 523-2258 or james.k.brooks@juneauemire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Attorneys for Rep. Benjamin Nageak began their campaign in court Tuesday as the Barrow Democrat challenges the results of the August primary election that saw him unseated by a Democratic challenger from northwest Alaska. In an Anchorage courtroom, Nageak attorney Tim McKeever interrogated Division of Elections supervisor Josie Bahnke for several hours, beginning a trial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"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-23782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23782","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\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23782"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}