Mat-Su Assembly rejects proposal to limit its control over borough election guides
The proposal would have blocked the assembly from inserting changes into the annual nonpartisan brochure.
What you need to know:
- The Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted to reject a proposal that would have removed their ability to modify future borough election brochures.
- Some Assembly members said they voted against the proposal because it would have reduced the oversight elected officials have over the Borough Clerk and clerk office staff.
- The proposal followed a controversial update to this year’s borough voter guide that included a statement denouncing political violence and honoring conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
- Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.
PALMER — The Mat-Su Assembly this week rejected a proposal that would have barred elected officials from making changes or adding text to future borough voter guides.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly voted down the measure 5-2 during a regular meeting Tuesday, with Assembly members Tim Hale and Stephanie Nowers in support.
Hale introduced the proposal following a unanimous vote in September to revise this year’s election guide with a statement denouncing political violence and honoring conservative activist Charlie Kirk and unnamed others. The change was made without public notice or comment.
Produced for each borough election, the roughly 40-page nonpartisan booklet includes information about candidates for borough office, ballot propositions, sample ballots, voter registration updates, and precinct locations. It is designed by the borough clerk and staff, approved by the assembly, and mailed to about 100,000 Mat-Su voters, according to borough code.
Hale’s proposal would have revised that process to remove the Assembly’s role, instead placing creation and approval of the guide entirely in the hands of the clerk and staff, according to the measure. He said the change was needed to prevent politicization and potential legal exposure.
“There are some things you really don’t want elected officials messing with, and one of those is elections,” Hale said during the meeting. “When I was talking to the clerk and the attorney about this ordinance, the attorney mentioned to me that he really, really doesn’t like it when the assembly starts to stick stuff in things like this because it leaves us open to liability as far as being sued or other things of that nature.”
The measure was voted down without any debate from other assembly members or comment from Clerk Lonnie McKechnie or Borough Attorney Nicholas Spiropoulos.
Assembly member Maxwell Sumner, who introduced the original statement against political violence that was added to this year’s guide, said he voted against Hale’s measure because policy oversight is the Assembly’s responsibility, not the clerk’s. He said he cleared the language with the attorney before proposing it for the guide.
“The Assembly creates policy, and the administration is supposed to execute it,” Sumner said in an interview after the meeting. “Really, to me, there’s a check and balance, and you just removed that check and balance from the Assembly.”
Assembly member Dmitri Fonov, who proposed adding Kirk’s name to the statement, also opposed Hale’s measure. He said the clerk works for the Assembly, not the other way around.
“It’s nonsense that we would give the final word to the clerk who works for us,” Fonov said in an interview.
Although some members of the public have testified that they opposed including Kirk’s name in the guide because it politicized a nonpartisan resource, Fonov said he hasn’t heard from anyone whose vote was affected by the change.
“I have not seen one voter who came or I talked to who said that because Charlie Kirk’s name in there, that they were somehow influenced,” he said.
Tuesday’s meeting was Hale’s last as a member of the assembly. District 1 is now represented by Michael Bowles, who was elected earlier this month and sworn in during a special borough election certification meeting Tuesday. Hale did not run for reelection.
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com