For Anchorage election workers, this month’s mayoral runoff was like no other. Citizen observers crowded outside the Election Center, photographing workers and writing down their license plate numbers. Inside, they filed challenge after challenge to routine counting procedures.
Meanwhile, the clerk’s office said, false claims flowed on local talk radio and blogs about “blank ballots” being smuggled into the Election Center, part of an effort to “sow distrust among voters.” Dave Bronson, the Republican candidate, parked an RV outside the center to provide 24/7 surveillance.
The result, according to a report released this week by the Anchorage city clerk, was “unprecedented harassment of election officials.”
The clerk’s report did not name either candidate as responsible for the problems, but after Bronson claimed a narrow victory, his Democratic challenger, Forrest Dunbar, accused the mayor-elect’s campaign of driving confrontations with city workers and trying to undermine confidence in Anchorage’s vote-by-mail system.
“We have witnessed aggressive, confrontational, and frankly bizarre behavior from Bronson supporters and staff toward Election Center workers,” Dunbar wrote on Facebook after conceding the race. “Coupled with their allies on the Assembly and in the far-right media, the Bronson campaign is strangely casting doubt on the election that they themselves are winning.”
Bronson did not immediately respond to a message from The Washington Post. In a statement to the Anchorage Daily News, his campaign defended its aggressive use of observers and said it had worked to mitigate any problems it caused.
“We understand the difficulty of having public scrutiny towards the elections office but those types of discussions need to happen in order to better our voting practices,” the campaign said. “When the behaviors were brought to the Bronson Campaign’s attention we would discuss the issue with the volunteer(s) and work to help provide a safe environment for everyone.”
The high drama around a traditionally sleepy municipal vote in Alaska echoes the national push by Republicans to cast doubt on voting systems and to demand recounts despite scant evidence of fraud, an effort driven by President Donald Trump’s false claims about his loss. Election officials nationwide have warned of escalating threats, leading many to quit their posts.
Voting by mail, which grew in popularity during the pandemic, has particularly drawn the ire of conservatives due to Trump’s baseless attacks on the process. Anchorage has for years used a universal mail-in system, sending ballots to every registered voter in the city. But during the campaign, the Daily News reported, Bronson supporters repeatedly questioned and attacked the mail-in procedures.
As observers from both Bronson and Dunbar’s campaigns watched those ballots being counted in the Election Center, election workers had to contend with “disrespectful, harassing and threatening behavior,” the clerk’s office said.
As observers began filing numerous challenges to the vote-counting inside, the clerk said, it quickly became evident that they didn’t understand what workers were doing.
“It was apparent from the behavior and questions … that a number of observers had not been trained by their campaign, many had not read the manual, and many did not have any understanding of the processes at the Election Center,” the clerk’s report said.
Some observers became belligerent, the clerk reported. When one was reminded not to touch a cage containing ballots, he told an elections worker, “I’ll bet when you go home at night you yell at your husband.” Then at the end of the day, he approached her again and said he “would be back to harass her more tomorrow.”
When the elections office complained to that observer’s campaign about his conduct, it played down the incident and later threatened legal action if the observer wasn’t allowed back into the center.
Meanwhile, as Bronson’s campaign parked its RV outside the center, a confrontational group hung out in the parking lot, snapping photos of election workers’ personal cars.
“Although it may be legal to photograph people and cars in public areas, the intensity and tone appeared to be geared towards intimidating officials rather than serving a legitimate purpose,” the clerk’s report said.
One worker had details from their Facebook page copied and shared online in an “attempt to discredit” them, the clerk said. Meanwhile, the clerk said, false rumors ran wild on talk radio and local blogs about boxes supposedly being removed from the Election Center, leading to a flood of calls and emails about the baseless claims.
One campaign, which the clerk didn’t identify, posted a video urging workers to be “heavily watched.”
“While we want people to come watch what we do. At times the observers acted in ways that seemed more aimed towards intimidating election officials rather than observing the process,” the clerk said.
In the end, Bronson — who based his campaign around criticisms of pandemic restrictions, like mask mandates and business closures — defeated Dunbar 50.66 percent to 49.34 percent, the Daily News reported, with more than 95 percent of voters either mailing in their ballots or using drop-off boxes. His victory was certified on Tuesday, and the clerk noted that despite the harassment, the election ran smoothly.
“The Anchorage Vote at Home/Vote by Mail system displayed flexibility, consistency, and accuracy, and thrived with record turnout and participation by voters,” the clerk’s report said.
Dunbar’s campaign warned that the observers’ tactics against officials were aimed at casting false doubt on the election — and could have led to serious conflict had Bronson lost.
“The national playbook is happening right here in this little election, too. It’s alarming to see it even on this level,” Claire Shaw, Dunbar’s campaign manager, told The Post. “If the election doesn’t go your way, then you can claim it’s fraud.”
