Why would I have to tell you that this is not a joke? Read below.
“The Anchorage Fish & Game Advisory Committee will hold their elections for regular seats on January 4th at 7:00 pm at the Anchorage Baptist Temple Children’s Ministry Gym, located at 6575 E Northern Lights Blvd. The public that is interested in serving on the advisory committee is encouraged to prepare and provide an 8 1/2 x 11 bio for posting at the meeting for public review. Also on the agenda will be an opportunity for public testimony. For more information contact Steve Flory at 727-3762.”
Where to begin…
Voting is currently open for the 2010 Muddy Award for the most nefarious miscreants in Alaska politics. Guess who’s winning at the moment? Al Barrette is winning. Who is Al Barrette? He’s the guy that went on camera skinning wolves while quoting the Bible. God gave Adam and Eve fur apparently, and so it’s perfectly natural that we take this divine mandate to slay tourist wolves in Denali National Park. And, oh yes… he owns a tannery and a wolf trap company in the area.
The notion of religion and game management going hand in hand is not confined to the likes of Mr. Barrette apparently. For full effect, the advisory commission is going to elect its members (those citizens who advise the Alaska Department of Fish and Game) at the Anchorage Baptist Temple, one of Anchorage’s two evangelical mega-churches. The Reverend Jerry Prevo of ABT was one of the organizers of the “Red Shirts” who overwhelmed the Anchroage Assembly two summers ago, lining up to give public testimony on the equal rights ordinance (64), talking about how giving the LGBT community the right to employment, housing, education and use of public facilities is an outrage against good Christian folk. Yes, THAT church.
The fact that the meeting is in the Children’s Ministry Gym and that the contact person is a convicted (in his 30s) sex offender with a 15-year old paper girl involved is just a little bit of irony icing for this big crap cupcake. How did he get voted in there last year, you ask? He was endorsed by the Conservative Patriots Group! Silly.
Needless to say, with public testimony being taken and the meeting announced last minute in a venue that many progressives will be loathe to darken the doorway of… we don’t know quite what to expect. Two years ago there were 65 people at the meeting. Last year, when the meeting was held at the School District Building (I know! How secular.) there were over 500, and things could have gotten a little hinky.
I wrote up last year’s meeting HERE, and noted several things relating to the election integrity of the vote. Yes, election integrity is important everywhere. Here are my thoughts from last time:
While I was driving home, eating my brownie, I didn’t turn on the radio. My internal dialog was going – creating a list of what I thought went wrong at this meeting.
- No numbered ballots
- No checking of IDs to ensure proper residency
- No checking of IDs to verify age requirement
- No checking of IDs to make sure names matched to avoid multiple voting
- Improper number of spaces on the ballot
- Electioneering happening on line with “who not to vote for” lists
- No ability for residents of places like Homer (5 hours from Anchorage) who are represented by this group to vote absentee
- No candidate statements available on line or in writing
- Votes cast before nominations were even made
· A facility which would have been unable to contain all those who showed up had they cared to stay and listen to the candidates speak
· AND, they would not allow me to bring brownies into the meeting room, despite the fact that others brought coffee in there! An outrage if you ask me. |
