Kenai Peninsula Borough voters will decide this fall whether the borough should hand-count paper ballots in borough elections. That’s after the borough clerk’s office signed off on a citizen initiative requesting the change.
Waynette Coleman helped sponsor the petition, which builds on concerns she and others brought to the borough assembly last year. She says accurate voter roles, secure elections and confidence in the democratic process are important to her.
“We the people have a right to vote and carry that vote honestly all the way through in an election, and that's what we expect,” she told KDLL in February.
Coleman says completely eliminating the use of technology in local elections, including tabulators, is necessary to restore confidence in elections.
“That would mean we need to put it back to the precinct level, make it so that everybody that votes, there's our peers there, there are people who may be hired, there are people that may be working for the state election, that's fine, or for the local election, that's fine, but it still would be within our neighborhood, our neighbors, our peers,” she said.
Coleman envisions voters feeding ballots into a locked box until polls close. Then, election workers would hand-count ballots and relay the results to the borough.
The petition comes amid broader concerns about election security, particularly after the 2020 presidential election. Multiple federal audits of the 2020 election have determined no widespread voter fraud occurred, including one published earlier this year.
Although the initial petition was written by citizens, Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly members get the final say on how the ballot proposition is worded.
Michele Turner is the Kenai Peninsula Borough clerk. She’s been in touch with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough clerk, about what the changes could mean for the Kenai Peninsula. The Mat-Su Borough has hand-counted paper ballots since 2023.
Turner says it’s hard to know how much a pivot to hand-counting would cost the borough, based on what she heard from the other clerk.
“She still is yet trying to figure out the differences, other than the initial impact of them not paying for their software provider any longer,” she said. “She did share with me that there was additional costs for personnel with her staff as well, and needing more election workers.”
But assembly members like Kelly Cooper are concerned about putting a proposition before voters that carries an unknown price tag.
“My concern with this going before the voters is I don't think they have all the information,” she said.
Assembly members unanimously voted to add a line clarifying that the change would require additional staff.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough already uses paper ballots. But it uses electronic tabulators to tally results. The borough added electronic voting machines to its fleet a few years ago for voters with special needs. The new machines were a way for the borough to resolve a complaint filed by a voter with vision impairments who said the borough’s existing system was discriminatory.
In 2021, borough assembly members passed sweeping changes to strengthen the security of borough elections. And borough staff have consistently said in recent years that borough elections are secure and reliable. The changes were sponsored by then-assembly members Jesse Bjorkman and Bill Elam, now both state lawmakers.
If passed, the proposition would become effective next year. Election day is Oct. 7. The voter registration deadline is Sept. 7. Voters can check their registration status on the Alaska Division of Elections website.
