The state Division of Elections is preparing to again send out voter-information pamphlets to more than 4,800 households around Palmer. It’ll be the second time the Elections Division sends the pamphlets, because the agency sent the wrong version of the pamphlets the first time around.
Elections Division Director Gail Fenumiai says the agency must send the correct version of the voter-information pamphlet, because the ones that arrived in voters’ mailboxes this week were missing some important information that District 9 voters need for the Nov. 3 general.
“The only thing in the book that they did not get that should have been in the book is the information on House District 9 candidates,” she said in an interview Thursday.
Fenumiai says the mistake was caused by Elections Division workers who didn’t sort the mailings correctly due to a mixup over the two agency offices that oversee elections for District 9. The district extends from the Mat-Su east to Glennallen, then south to Valdez and north the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The southern portion of the district lies within Region 2, based in Anchorage; the northern and eastern parts of the district, including Valdez, are within Region 3, based in Fairbanks.
Fenumiai says the correct pamphlet will include information on the two District 9 candidates, but not so much on the incumbent, Republican Representative George Rauscher.
“Mr. Rauscher did not file his paperwork with the Division to be included in the pamphlet,” she said.
Fenumiai says the pamphlet will include a footnote explaining the absence of information about Rauscher, who lives in Sutton and is running against Democrat Bill Johnson, of Delta Junction. She said Thursday the vendor contracted by the Elections Division to distribute the pamphlets is hustling to get them in the mail right away.
“The vendor is printing them now,” she said. “They’re scheduled to be shipped out to Anchorage post office tomorrow.”
Fenumiai said her office had gotten a couple of calls and an email from the Johnson campaign on Thursday. She didn’t have an estimate offhand on how much it’ll cost the Elections Division to mail the correct pamphlets to 4,866 households in four precincts north of Palmer.
