The U.S. Justice Department Goes to Alaska

[Blue_In_AK]

From The National Review Online http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/251626/justice-department-goes-alaska-hans-von-spakovsky

For a good preview of how politics, rather than law, may drive decisions in the Obama Justice Department next year when redistricting gets underway, go north, young man, and cast your eye on the Senate race in Alaska. The latest shenanigans by Alaskan election officials and the Voting Section of Justice’s Civil Rights Division show a dangerous willingness to bend regulations in furtherance of political objectives.

Here is the background: After Joe Miller defeated Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary, Murkowski decided to run as a write-in candidate — meaning that her name would not be on the ballot, and thus that ill-informed voters will not be reminded at the polling place that she is an option. But on October 15, the Alaska Division of Elections decided to provide polling places with posters listing write-in candidates and their party affiliations. The list would obviously help Murkowski.

The problem is that posting such a list violates the Election Division’s own regulations, which specifically state that “information regarding a write-in candidate may not be discussed, exhibited, or provided at the polling place, or within 200 feet of any entrance to the polling place, on election day.” That’s why the Election Division has never provided a list of write-in candidates in any election in the past.

No one’s saying the regulation can’t be changed. But if the Division wants to change it, it should follow the procedures laid out in the Alaska Administrative Practices Act: proposing a new regulation, taking public comments, and only then changing the law.

Of course, following the legally mandated procedures would take far too long to help Lisa Murkowski in this election, so the division’s sudden change is highly suspicious. It’s hard not to suspect political motivations. In addition to her Republican supporters, many Democrats hope Murkowski will defeat her much more conservative opponent. Also, the state’s chief elections official, Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell, is an old political ally of the Murkowski clan, having been appointed adjutant general of the state’s Department of Military and Veteran Affairs by the candidate’s father, Frank Murkowski.

When the state’s Republican and Democratic parties sued to stop the list, the Election Division made the nonsensical claim that the list would not violate the regulation because it would not provide “information” to voters. When he ruled against the Election Division, Superior Court Judge Frank Pfiffner rejected that assertion as “simply wrong.”

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More and more hinkiness in the Alaska election. We've just got to get Scott elected or there won't be another senator for Alaska for months.