Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce stuck to his guns by vetoing Ordinance 2020-24, which established the borough’s hybrid vote-by-mail system. The hybrid structure passed by the assembly aims to send ballots to voters automatically, while still opening some polling centers for those who prefer to vote in-person.
In a memo issued to the borough assembly on Monday afternoon, the mayor placed a great deal of emphasis on his belief that residents of the Kenai should be able to vote on the issue, as it “impacts the fundamental right to vote,” rather than leaving it as an issue for the borough assembly to decide. He also questioned the security of the system. The potential security pitfalls of vote-by-mail systems have been a recurring theme of opponents to the system in meetings across the peninsula, and across the nation.
Mayor Pierce also cites issues with the lack of clarity about where voting centers will be located and how many will be open, as well as potential privacy issues that come with voting from home alongside household members rather than voting in a private booth.
This decision was no surprise. The Mayor was asked by KSRM on June 18 if he planned to use his power of veto on this ordinance: “Yes, I’m going to. There’s a number of folks – lots of folks, not a number, a lot of folks in the borough who would prefer to have this voted on. They’ve asked for that. They’ve requested that. They did it when it was introduced. You would expect that’s when they would come to the table, that’s often what they do. Yet, there’s a trend around the world and the nation that vote-by-mail is the way to go. Some say it’s less expensive, and many argued that it’s more expensive. It’s not going to go to the ballot – the decision has been made by the majority of the assembly, and it’s a vote-by-mail will occur and my determination, and I’m getting a considerable amounts of requests, is to veto it.”
He added that he would not have used his veto if the original ordinance had allowed for the issue to be voted-on by residents at the ballot box before being enacted.
An override of Mayor Pierce’s veto would take six votes in the Assembly. The original ordinance creating the hybrid vote-by-mail system was passed with six yes votes, and the attempt to bring the topic back up for discussion during the June 16 meeting was defeated by the same six voters. Mayor Pierce acknowledged that it is likely that his veto will be overridden, but that he feels a responsibility to “represent the people.”