PALMER -- Polls closed Oct. 6 in Matanuska-Susitna Borough elections. But one race still isn't over.
Defeated assembly candidate Doyle Holmes, the 78-year-old owner of the True Value hardware store in Willow, on Tuesday filed an election challenge that triggered an investigation and blocked opponent Randall Kowalke's scheduled swearing-in.
A lengthy count of absentee and questioned ballots in the District 7 assembly race finished Monday. Just 33 votes gave retired business executive Kowalke, 68 and also from Willow, claim to the seat that represents communities from Meadow Lakes to Trapper Creek. Holmes had been ahead by 52 votes when polls closed.
Holmes, who filed an unsuccessful challenge of the ballot-handling process last week, on Tuesday filed a notice he was contesting the election.
The new challenge is based on problems with an electronic ballot-counting machine in Talkeetna that stopped working the afternoon of Oct. 6.
The uncounted ballots were placed in a sealed ballot container when polls closed, according to the two-page document Holmes filed. Borough Clerk Lonnie McKechnie asked the Houston clerk to drive up and get the ballots. McKechnie met her there with another borough clerk. The group ran the ballots through another vote-counting machine. The ballots were sealed again.
Holmes contends that "significantly deviated" from the process required by borough code because more than one person had ballots in their possession. Kowalke got about three-quarters of the ballots in that precinct, which is known to be more moderate than other Susitna Valley communities including Willow.
But Holmes contends that vote swing, along with the process, "calls the election into question and is the basis for this election contest."
He requested an investigation that doesn't include McKechnie.
Borough attorney Nick Spiropoulos during an assembly meeting Tuesday said the investigation hearing will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday. The investigation will "evaluate whether or not it alleges fraud, malconduct or corruption or corrupt practices sufficient to change the result of the election," Spiropoulos said.
The hearing will continue Friday if necessary, he said.
Incoming borough mayor Vern Halter, who holds the District 7 assembly seat now, said at the close of the meeting that he wants a prompt investigation.
"I want to get Randall seated in a timely fashion," he said.