A judge on Nov. 11 denied a request for immediate access to records regarding the Nov. 3 midterm election from the Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Alaska.
Alaska Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews turned down a lawsuit from Mary Peltola’s campaign that demanded immediate access to records identifying people whose absentee ballots the Alaska Division of Elections rejected and the rationale for those rejections, including information potentially contained in a report provided to election observers.
The two versions of that report are not public records and thus do not have to be disclosed to Peltola’s campaign, Matthews said in a 17-page decision. The documents contain confidential information and preliminary data, and observers are not allowed to retain copies, he said.
Compelling the state to compile a report on reasons for the rejections is not reasonable, in part because the division is still processing ballots in the race for the seat, according to the ruling. The data could be gathered from a database, but would need to be redacted first.
“The Division is actively in the middle of counting ballots. It has active deadlines it must meet,” the judge wrote. “The Division asserts its staff is actively working long hours to accomplish its fundamental responsibility—administering elections. The timing of the Campaign’s request could simply not be worse.”
Even if the request was reasonable outside the busiest election time of year, it is not reasonable or required right now, the judge concluded.
Peltola’s campaign and the Alaska Division of Elections did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
Absentee ballots can be rejected under state law if a ballot with a postmark is not postmarked on or before the date of the election, among other reasons.
Alaska officials had said that the names were provided, but they could not hand over the rejection reasons at this time because that information has not been finalized.
It’s not clear how many ballots Alaska has left to process. The Associated Press estimated that 86 percent of the ballots cast have been counted at the time of publication.
