At trial, state attorneys admit election mistakes but say House District 40 results shouldn't be tossed

State lawyers Tuesday morning launched their defense of the August primary election in Alaska's northernmost state House district, saying voting problems documented by attorneys for losing incumbent Rep. Ben Nageak don't justify throwing out the results.

"These are complaints about mistakes that could not make any difference in the result," said Margaret Paton-Walsh, chief assistant attorney general. "Because elections are run by people, ordinary people, no election is ever perfect. But because of the importance of voting, courts do not invalidate elections just because mistakes have been made."

Paton-Walsh gave the state's opening statement Tuesday in a lawsuit before Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi.

[Read the state's trial brief]

The suit was brought by Nageak, D-Barrow, along with four residents of his rural District 40, which stretches across more than 500 miles and two boroughs in the northernmost part of the state. Nageak is from the North Slope Borough, while his opponent, Dean Westlake, is from the Northwest Arctic Borough town of Kotzebue.

Nageak, who caucuses with the House's Republican-led majority, lost last month's Democratic primary race by eight votes to Westlake, 825-817.

But news reports and Alaska Republican Party officials quickly documented irregularities and problems at polls around the district, including Shungnak.

In that Northwest Alaska village, state officials acknowledge a worker incorrectly distributed two different ballots to 50 voters, who were supposed to get only one.

Nageak alleges other problems, too — there weren't enough poll workers at some places; some Republicans had trouble receiving Democratic ballots to which they're entitled, and inadequate documentation.

"The evidence will establish there's this whole series of problems with the election," Tim McKeever, Nageak's attorney, said Tuesday morning. "We contend that the violations are so significant, the 'malconduct' is so great, that the outcome could be changed."

[Read Nageak's trial brief.]

McKeever suggested Guidi could alter the results, or order the election between Westlake and Nageak rerun, either in a special election or paired with the November general election.

Neither of the candidates appeared Tuesday in the courtroom, which is hundreds of miles south of their district. But both had attorneys present — Westlake's was Anchorage lawyer Thomas Amodio.

McKeever was joined at his table by Randy Ruedrich, the former Alaska Republican Party chair who's known for his elections expertise. Ruedrich told a reporter he would be a "technical advisor" to Nageak's side.

Nageak's formal witness list included Ruedrich, while the state said it planned to call Nageak to testify.

The state's attorneys were accompanied by Josie Bahnke, Alaska's elections director, who was the first witness called to the stand.

Paton-Walsh, chief assistant attorney general, said mistakes crop up in elections because they're "complex productions with thousands of moving parts."

But the only "real error" in the primary — that some voters received two ballots instead of one — doesn't meet the legal standard of "malconduct, fraud or corruption" required for the courts to change the election's result, Paton-Walsh said.

Because the Democratic primary is open to all voters, everyone who participated was entitled to do so, she added.

Other allegations made by Nageak and his attorneys stem from their "failure to understand" the way the state runs its elections, or are false or didn't affect the result, said Paton-Walsh.

"The general rule is that every reasonable presumption will be indulged in favor of the validity of the election," she said.

Bahnke testified that her department was already examining one of its procedures in response to a problem documented over the summer, when a convicted felon, William Oviok, was charged with illegally voting in the North Slope Borough mayoral election.

Oviok subsequently claimed he was forced to vote a Republican ballot when he wanted to participate in the Democratic primary.

Under questioning by McKeever, Bahnke said Oviok's case had prompted questions about how her division ensures convicted felons are barred from voting.

The current system, which involves a state corrections department database that Bahnke likened to a hotel register for prisons, is being reviewed by the state law department, she said.

The trial is scheduled to run through Friday. Any appeal of Guidi's decision is expected to be combined with a separate elections case already filed by Nageak in the Alaska Supreme Court.