Opinion ID: 1364196
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Ballots from Kotlik and Kwethluk

Text: In Kwethluk and Kotlik a total of 141 ballots (104 from Kwethluk and 37 from Kotlik) were discarded rather than mailed to the lieutenant governor, as required by AS 15.15.370. This amounts to a significant deviation from the positive statutory duty placed upon the election board to mail the ballots to the lieutenant governor. This deviation does not in itself, however, require that these votes be disallowed. We hold that AS 15.15.430, read in conjunction with AS 15.15.440, permits the election certificate to be considered as evidence of the election result, in the absence of evidence of fraud, corruption, or scienter on the part of any member of the election board in tallying the votes and executing the certificate. Appellees assert that the Kotlik and Kwethluk ballots, which were later recovered, cannot be utilized because they were mutilated and because there was an opportunity to tamper with those ballots. However, given the particular facts surrounding the recovery of the ballots, the ballots could be of some value in demonstrating that the certificate of the election board was entitled to be included in the canvass by the lieutenant governor. The affidavit of Ms. Jo Ann Crane, election supervisor for Northwest Alaska for the August 22, 1978, primary election, states that Ms. Crane was informed by her staff that the only major mistake made by those election precincts was the failure of the respective election chairmen to send the used ballots to Juneau. The election results in each district were tallied in a tally book, reported to the election office in Nome by telephone, and ultimately by certificate on the cover of the tally book. Christopher Aketachunak, election chairman in Kotlik, sent unused ballots, ballot stubs, one tally book and two questioned ballots to Juneau. He stated that he destroyed the ballots thinking that he did not need to send them in to Juneau as he had certified the official count on the tally book. Similarly, the used ballots were destroyed in Kwethluk. In recount proceedings the envelopes containing the unused ballots were presented. Thirty-seven ballots were cast in Kotlik, and unused ballots numbered from 38 upwards were presented upon recount. In investigative proceedings subsequent to the recount, a state ombudsman investigator discovered 35 out of the 37 ballots from Kotlik, and 104 of the Kwethluk ballots, all 104 ballot bottoms, and 78 of the tops, were discovered. The return of the unused ballots to Juneau, coupled with the discovery of a significant portion of the used ballots from both locations, justifies a finding that election fraud was unlikely, and the vote tallies were entitled to be counted by the lieutenant governor in the original tally and the recount. The returning of the unused ballots, and the recovery of part of the used ballots tend to corroborate the validity of the local election boards' certificates.