Anchorage Election Commission Meeting Summary - November 21, 2025
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Anchorage Election Commission Meeting Summary - November 21, 2025
The Anchorage Election Commission held a meeting focused on addressing communication breakdowns with the Municipal Clerk's Office and the Assembly Election Committee. Commissioner Katie Nolan expressed significant frustration regarding her inability to fulfill statutory duties to study and recommend election ordinance changes, citing a lack of information and notification regarding recent policy shifts. This was largely triggered by the introduction of a new secure document portal for remote voting, proposed without prior notification to the Commission. Board members discussed the implications of new voting technologies, the need for respect and consultation on legislative changes affecting elections, and the necessity of transparency to maintain public trust.
Consent Calendar
- No routine consent calendar items were discussed during this meeting session.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Commissioner Katie Nolan: Expressed deep frustration and embarrassment regarding her lack of knowledge about election policy changes, stating this prevents her from acting as an effective advisory body. She stated she feels she is falling down on her job duties as defined by Title 28.
- Commissioner Ann Courtney: Stated her issue was not the policy itself, which she deemed good, but the fact that she felt "really cut off" from the Clerk's Office. She noted that a press statement claimed the Assembly had been briefed, yet the Commission was unaware, highlighting a "communication" problem rather than a policy flaw.
- Commissioner Lauren Lehman: Expressed concern over the lack of paper trails and security in the new electronic system. She questioned the ability to verify voter identity solely through identifiers like driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers, which she described as easily accessible. She emphasized the need to see "gate bases" and safeguards beyond standard identifiers.
- Commissioner Meetread (Mead): Expressed concern that the new cloud-based system might automatically enter results into vote counts without examination. He questioned the robustness of security measures, suggesting alternatives like voice prints or retinal scans, and emphasized the need to know how improperly submitted ballots would be rejected.
Discussion Items
- Role of the Commission vs. Clerk's Office: Commissioners unanimously agreed that the Commission is not a "convention board" and must be consulted on major procedural changes, legislation, and potential personnel changes. Ann Courtney emphasized that "anything that has to do with legislation, anything that has to do with major change of procedures" requires Commission consultation.
- The Secure Document Portal: Election Administrator Liz Edwards explained the system (developed with DOD/DHS), noting voters apply specifically, receive a unique PIN and link, and vote. She clarified the system converts the electronic ballot to paper for scanning, creating a paper trail, rather than allowing email attachments. Mead questioned if this was the first instance of cell phone voting without printing, referencing a New York Times article.
- Historical Context of Distrust: Lauren Lehman provided a history of tensions, noting that after the previous election where ballots were not delivered to one district, the Assembly passed legislation signaling the Commission "doesn't really matter" and restricting their ability to investigate certain issues. She stated the Clerk's office had been "defensive" and dismissive of questions in the past.
- Security Concerns: The board discussed the vulnerability of remote voting. While Lehman acknowledged previous state laws allowed remote voting, she stressed the difficulty of verifying identity without physical ID checks. There was a discussion about whether the chain of custody for electronic ballots is secure enough compared to the Attorney General's office's previous stance against cloud storage for election data.
Key Outcomes
- Action Item 1: Chair Nolan will meet with the Chair of the Assembly Election Committee to request formal notification and consultation regarding future legislation to ensure the Commission is "kept in the loop".
- Action Item 2: Commissioner Lauren Lehman will schedule a meeting with the Municipal Clerk (Jamie) to discuss communication avenues and request that the Commission be included in briefings. Chair Nolan may attend with her.
- Action Item 3: The Commission will request a public demonstration of the new secure document portal to be held outside an assembly building. This demonstration will invite the public to ask questions to restore trust and clarify the system's functionality.
- Directive: The Commission expects future major changes or plans by the Clerk's Office to respect their statutory role and include them in the decision-making process to avoid feelings of inadequacy and disrespect.
Meeting Transcript
All right. Um Katie Nolan, I'm gonna call this meeting to order. The other people here are Anne Courtney and Lauren Lehman and Meetread both on the phone. Liz Edwards election administrator. Thank you. And what are we waiting for? Oh, we l we lost Anne for a moment. We had slushy roads getting here. Oh, did you? Well sanded. Well said, slushy roads. I yes, my car is filthy. I have to stop at a gas station and clean the backwood shield off. And you try to avoid the windshield wipers are just not effective. No, not on this stuff, no. All right. Um meeting, two items that I have on the meeting, and the first one is going to be frustration. Sorry about that, you're gonna get stuck with that after day. I apologize. But the main purpose is to understand our role and how we're functioning, how we're doing our role. Um I when I joined this commission, I did so with a full knowledge of what I was doing. I I've I served on the animal control advisory board under uh Mayor uh Mark Begage. Um that was during the rewrite of Title 17, the animal control laws. And we worked on that for a year trying to make a good product. Um, and I'm talking about like sometimes there were every week meetings. So it was a lot of in-depth work, completely rewriting it, but I'm very familiar with writing code and the importance of making it gel with state and federal laws. You have to be able to pull all of that together. The responsibility that was to me it was really incredible, but my language that I actually wrote about dangerous dogs was upheld by the Alaska Supreme Court, so I think I did a pretty good job on it. I'm not bragging, it's just we worked hard on it. Um so when actually it was I think it was Kai said, Kai Holland said challenged us to look and see what boards and commissions had vacancies and what we could do, where we could contribute, where we could be an asset to our community. And I went down the list and and the election commission just it seemed like it was a natural fit for me because I've worked a poll location for decades uh now. Sorry, then decades, um, including being the chair at South High for the last number of years. Um I thought the this way of working in, I can understand both sides of what's going on, and maybe I can contribute something. And before I applied, I read everything I could find on Title 28 and what the responsibilities were, what our duties were. And part of our duties I think we're doing, but part of our duties, I don't think we're doing, and I feel like another failure in part of our duties. When you look at the first two duties, and there's under 2812060, the election commission shall have the following duties. Act as an advisory capacity to the assembly and the municipal voice clerk, and study and recommend to the assembly and municipal proposed ordinances relating to elections. That's our job. And I don't think I've done my job. After it's very frustrating to look at the duties that are assigned in code and know that I'm not living up to them. And when people, friends call me and say, Katie, what's this new change on in election? And I'm going, what new change? I don't have a clue what they're talking about. And that's so embarrassing. It feels like I'm falling down on my job. But somehow we've got to establish a better relationship, a better understanding of what our job is and how we can better perform our job or perform it to start with. By getting knowledge of these things and being able to advise and study and recommend these changes to our codes. Well I don't know that you're way off base, but I don't know that it's as bad as maybe you are suggesting, or you think maybe you think it is. Okay. Maybe we haven't done as well as we should in advancing some of our thoughts to the assembly.
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