Following a legal dispute over ballot access for visually challenged voters, the Alaska Supreme Court determined Saturday that certification of the special primary election for this state for the US House can proceed, Fox News informed.
A lower court ruling prohibiting state elections authorities from certifying the special primary results unless visually impaired voters were given a “full and fair” opportunity to vote was reversed and dismissed by the court.
Attorneys for the state had sought the top court to overturn Superior Court Judge Una Gandbhir’s judgment from Friday. The lawyers said that Gandbhir’s decision prevented election authorities from completing voting on Saturday as planned.
Gandbhir had decided that Alaska elections officials couldn’t certify the results of the by-mail special primary unless visually impaired voters had a “full and fair chance to participate” in the election, but she didn’t specify what that meant.
Last Monday, the executive director of the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights, Robert Corbisier filed a lawsuit against state elections officials on behalf of a visually impaired registered voter in Anchorage.
The election does not provide suitable methods for those with vision impairments to cast votes “without an invasive and an unlawful assistance from a sighted person,” according to Corbisier’s attorneys. Attorneys for the state have stated that there were numerous methods for secret voting.
A more detailed explanation of the Supreme Court’s decision will be released at a later date.
In Alaska’s primary election, 48 candidates are vying for the state’s lone House seat, which was left vacant by the death in March of longtime Republican Rep. Don Young.
Republicans Nick Begich, Tara Sweeney, Josh Revak, and the former Governor Sarah Palin; Democrats Mary Peltola and Christopher Constant; independent Al Gross; and the self-described “independent, progressive, democratic socialist” whose legal name is Santa Claus, who has gained attention but has not been collecting donations, are among the prominent candidates in the race.
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