Vote audit fails to break tie in critical Alaska House election

JUNEAU -- Democrat Kathryn Dodge and Republican Bart LeBon remain tied in their election for Alaska House District 1 after another day of hand-counted review by the Alaska Division of Elections.

In a fourth-floor conference room at the division’s headquarters in Juneau, two members of the State Review Board unsuccessfully examined hundreds of absentee ballots for any sign of a clear winner.

The November general election will be certified Monday. It will be followed by a full recount, which has been scheduled for Nov. 30.

LeBon and Dodge each stand at 2,661 votes. If LeBon wins, the Republican-aligned caucus will have at least 21 members, the bare minimum needed to hold a majority. Other lawmakers could join that caucus, expanding the majority.

If Dodge wins, the 2017-2018 coalition House majority will still have 20 members, leading to a 20-20 tie.

Majorities are critical under the rules that govern the Legislature: The group that holds a majority is able to name the Speaker of the House, set agendas and appoint committee chairmen. A Republican-aligned majority would significantly aid the cause of governor-elect Mike Dunleavy. A coalition majority would be in a position to stymie him.

Friday’s count was unlikely to break the tie: Question and early votes had been examined by hand earlier in the week, leaving only absentee votes that had already been hand-counted in Fairbanks. The Juneau audit would have revealed any problems in that prior process.

“It’s an impressive process, and as they said in hindsight, the absentees have already been validated at the regional level,” Dodge said.

She was present at the hand-counting in Juneau, having flown from Fairbanks to observe alongside state senator-elect Jesse Kiehl and Kiehl aide Cathy Schlingheyde.

“My Thanksgiving was Mongolian beef at the Anchorage airport,” Dodge said.

Asked whether she intends to remain in the capital for the rest of the proceedings, she said, “at this time, I plan to stay here.”

On Friday, LeBon was in Fairbanks, attending a Republican luncheon featuring Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska. He said by text message that he is still considering whether to travel to Juneau.

In Alaska, most votes in urban Alaska are counted by an optical scanner. Fill in the bubble on the paper ballot, and the scanner tallies a vote for the appropriate candidate.

Ordinarily, a group of elections workers known as the State Review Board selects one precinct at random from each of Alaska’s 40 state House districts for a by-hand review as part of the counting process. It’s not a recount; it’s part of the initial count. That hand review is intended to make sure the scanners are working properly and to make the first count more accurate.

“We‘ve had some that go through the machine and don’t get counted,” said review board member Lynda Thater-Flemmer, explaining the process for observers on Friday.

In the case of House District 1, votes from all nine precincts are being reviewed by hand.

Given the closeness of the race, said elections program manager Brian Jackson, officials wanted to make the first count as accurate as possible.

“It is an extra step,” Jackson said of the hand review, “but it warrants it.”

The hand count also reveals the quirks of Alaska voters.

One House District 1 absentee ballot had a handwitten note: “you need to know, super cold here”.

That voter had left the LeBon-Dodge race blank.

On another ballot, the voter had filled in the oval for LeBon and the one for Dodge, but the LeBon oval also had an X marked through it.

How should it be counted? Review board member Stuart Sliter took the ballot to Division of Elections director Josie Bahnke for her review.

“That’s an overvote,” Bahnke said.

In other words, it doesn’t count.

The issue of another questionable ballot wasn’t solved Friday. That ballot was a question ballot enclosed in a secrecy sleeve but unaccompanied by any other material indicating whether it was cast by a legal voter. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the ballot was valid, and it remained uncounted.

Ballots like that one could be the subject of a challenge in Friday’s recount, or they could be material for a legal challenge. Under state law, a candidate may challenge an election result in court.

If the race remains tied after a recount and court challenge (if there is one), it would be decided “by lot.” The last time that happened, in 2006, the two candidates flipped a coin to decide the race.

On Friday, that coin hung in a glassed-in display within feet of the vote-counting process.