JUNE, Alaska (AP) – Special primaries for the only seat in the U.S. House in Alaska have been brought forward as planned Saturday after a tense legal battle over access to ballot boxes that had overshadowed the election.
The legal drama was the last turn in what has already been an extraordinary election, full of 48 candidates who ran for the seat left vacant by the death in March of US Representative Don Young. Young, a Republican, held the seat for 49 years.
On Saturday, the Alaska Supreme Court overturned and overturned a lower court order banning state election officials from certifying the results of special primaries until visually impaired voters had a “full and fair” opportunity. to participate.
State attorneys had interpreted Friday’s order by High Court judge Una Gandbhir as preventing election officials from concluding the vote as scheduled on Saturday. They asked the Supreme Court to revoke the order.
The high court said an explanation of his reasoning would follow later.
Gandbhir ruled Friday that Alaska election officials could not certify the results of special primaries by mail until visually impaired voters “have a full and fair chance to run” in the election. She did not specify what this would mean.
The verdict came in a case filed earlier this week by Robert Corbisier, executive director of the Alaska State Commission on Human Rights. Corbisier sued state election officials on behalf of a person identified as BL, a visually impaired Anchorage registered voter.
Corbisier’s lawyers said the election has no options that allow visually impaired people to vote “without the invasive and illegal assistance of a sighted person.” State attorneys said there were proper methods for secret ballot.
A Corbisier attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
This is the first election under a voter-approved system in 2020 that puts an end to party primaries and uses ranking voting in general elections.
Leading candidates include former Gov. Sarah Palin, Nick Begich, Tara Sweeney and Josh Revak, all Republicans; independent Al Gross; and Democrats Christopher Constant and Mary Peltola. A self-proclaimed “independent socialist, progressive and democratic” whose legal name is Santa Claus has attracted attention but has not been raising money.
Each voter chooses a candidate in the special primaries, which will reduce the list from 48 to four. The four candidates who get the most votes go to special elections in which the ballot by qualified election will be used. The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Young’s term, which ends in January.
The special elections will coincide with the ordinary primaries on August 16. Ordinary primaries and the November general election will decide who will hold a two-year term starting in January.
Special primaries are held primarily by mail, which election officials said they chose to take into account the tight schedule for holding elections after Young’s death.
By Friday afternoon, some 130,000 ballots had been returned to the Elections Division. Voting began in late April.
For some voters, trying to rank 48 candidates was daunting. Candidates tried to stand out from their opponents and break with their messages.
Peltola, a former Bethel state lawmaker who has been involved in fisheries issues, said she entered the race with little name recognition, but believed that this had changed and that she has a boost behind her candidacy.
She and Constant, a member of the Anchorage Assembly, have made perhaps the most visible campaigns among the six Democrats in the race, which also includes 22 independents and 16 Republicans.
Most candidates have not reported any fundraising to the Federal Electoral Commission. Of those who have done so, Palin reported the highest transportation between April 1 and May 22, more than $ 630,000. Gross, an orthopedic surgeon who unsuccessfully ran in the U.S. Senate in 2020, reported receiving about $ 545,000 between March 23 and May 22.
Begich, who began running for the House seat last fall, had more cash available on May 22, about $ 715,000. He has so far lent his campaign $ 650,000.
Independent Jeff Lowenfels, a legal gardening expert, reported that he contributed about $ 150,000 from April 1 to May 22, which includes $ 100,000 lent by his campaign.
Palin was backed by a number of national political figures, including former President Donald Trump, and last month campaigned in Georgia for David Perdue, who lost the Republican primary as governor of that state. holder Brian Kemp.
Trump took part in a “telerally” for Palin, saying he would “fight harder than anyone can think of,” especially on energy issues.
Some in Alaska questioned Palin’s commitment. She resigned in the medium term as governor in 2009, months after her unsuccessful candidacy for vice president of the United States. In a radio ad, he intends to assure voters: “I’m in this long term. … I’ll see all this and I’ll get your support.”
During the campaign, opponents seized this point. Gross said Palin “gave up on Alaska.” Begich and Sweeney said they were not abandoning.
Begich, a Republican from a prominent Democrat family, garnered support from state conservatives along with the Alaska Republican Party. Sweeney was Undersecretary of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior under Trump and has received support from a group representing leaders of the state’s influential Alaska Native regional corporations.
Gross, in an email to fans, said Palin and Begich are tough candidates to beat, but said he is “ready and able to take on this fight.”
On Saturday it got rainy in Juneau, waving placards with fans and saying he was fine with his campaign.