Anchorage Daily News

PALMER — Looking to take part in a historical presidential election, Jan Newman joined several hundred Alaskans serving as state-trained voter registrars this year.

But though the volunteer position is nonpartisan, the 49-year-old Lazy Mountain alpaca farmer ran into a political roadblock in Palmer.

Newman hoped to sign up voters at the Koslosky Center, a downtown hotspot home to popular coffee shop and hangout Vagabond Blues.

Building owner Michelle Kincaid said no.

To hear Newman tell it, the decision stemmed from Kincaid’s support for the Republican presidential ticket and her fear that Newman would sign up supporters of Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

To hear Kincaid’s side, the registrar failed a basic test, raising concerns that she was involved with a national community group being investigated for possible voter fraud.

So here’s what happened:

Newman last month called Kincaid to get permission for a hallway registration station. Kincaid asked why. Newman said she thought she’d encounter young people, and people who had never voted in a presidential election.

Then, both say, Kincaid asked Newman whom she planned to vote for.

Newman told Kincaid her choice for president was irrelevant because registering voters was a bipartisan activity. She also declined to say in a subsequent interview.

Kincaid supports the Republican presidential ticket of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin. “She said, 'Well, I’m voting for Sarah.’ And then she said, 'And it’s usually the Obama people who are trying to get other people to vote and since I don’t like Obama, I’m going to have to say no,’ ” Newman recalled.

Kincaid said that’s not what happened.

She never talked to Newman about Obama, she said.

Rather, Kincaid explained, she said no because Newman couldn’t tell her where unregistered voters can sign up, besides with a registrar. For example, can they sign up at a library, or at the state Division of Motor Vehicles, she said.

“She did not know,” she said. “That threw up a red flag to me. If you were a registrar for the state of Alaska’s elections division, you would understand where somebody could go any time.” So, she continued, “I was concerned that possibly she was affiliated with ACORN because she did not know where you could register any time.”

The McCain-Palin campaign has tried to link the community group — the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now — with Obama, though that campaign denies a connection beyond some legal representation in the 1990s.

Generally, Kincaid said, she and building co-owner David Kloep rarely allow solicitation unless all tenants approve.

Kincaid did tell Newman she could register voters inside Vagabond Blues if owner Lorie Koppenberg approved. But Koppenberg said she wanted her shop to remain neutral and didn’t want customers to “be bombarded about doing something or buying something.”

Voter registrars must get permission from building owners, Gail Fenumiai, the state’s elections division director, said via e-mail.

Registrars get 20 to 30 minutes of training plus a voter registration handbook, but it does not “specifically mention the other locations where a voter can register,” Fenumiai wrote. Yes, people can register to vote at DMV, but libraries don’t necessarily have forms on file, elections officials said.

The deadline to register for the Nov. 4 election ended Oct. 5.

Newman signed up nine or 10 people at Palmer High School and another Palmer coffee shop, she said. “There were probably two or three people who said they were McCain supporters. And one who said he was an Obama supporter.”

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