The Nenana City Council met in a special meeting Monday night to consider complaints filed by four citizens.
The city code allows for an election challenge. Mayor Joshua Verhagen, who won reelection by 11 votes, posted about the challenges on his official Facebook Page.
He wrote that “An election may be contested only upon the filing by a city voter of a written affidavit specifying with particularly the grounds for the contest.”
According to the code, an affidavit can be filed with the municipal clerk, then the City Council considers the affidavit and hears testimony. The council may order a further investigation, order a recount of the ballots, call a new election or run-off election, or declare that the contest is without merit.
Verhagen reported that four affidavits were filed, by Rhonda Coghill, Megan Baker, Ricky Turner and Kari Irish. Turner ran for City Council but lost this election.
According to Verhagen’s post, the City Council met to deliberate and unanimously determined to hold a new election.
The election on October 1st was for mayor, two city council seats and two school board seats. City Administrator Nicole Shreve at the time said turnout was high – more than 50%. 197 people voted out of 345 people on the rolls.
The City Council unanimously determined to hold a new election.
Verhagen wrote that he did not believe the decision to hold a new election was made lightly. He said QUOTE “it was acknowledged that several errors were made that could give room for doubt as to the integrity of the election.”
He wrote that there were several times councilmembers stated they don’t think there was malicious intent or intentional wrongdoing by anyone handling parts of the election process.
The City Administrator, the City Clerk and the mayor could not be reached for comment or did not return calls to KUAC on Monday evening. However, this is a developing story, as mayor Verhagen posted that the city is consulting this week with local government specialists and is seeking legal advice before making statements or taking next steps.
He thanked the election judges, the City Clerk and City Administrator and others for doing a hard job that is easily scrutinized. And thanked City Council and community members for being willing to work to improve and refine the process.
According to city code, a special election could be called by the city council with 20 days notice to the public.
The Council will meet again Monday the 21st to discuss the details of the new election.
