Scott Kendall, the architect of Alaska’s ranked choice vote system, filed a fresh complaint on Monday to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, this time alleging that the opponents of ranked choice are utilizing one of the Anchorage church as their headquarters in their quest to end the system of voting, despite swearing in oath that they’re not.
It’s the 3rd APOC lawsuit Kendall has submitted in behalf of Alaskans for Better Elections against Anchorage pastor Art Mathias or a constellation of religious organizations he founded or runs.
It is founded on the secret recordings of an employee of Kendall’s team prior to Thanksgiving to appear as someone who was interested in obtaining signatures in order to put the repeal measure onto the ballot. The undercover team was taken to Wellspring Ministries in south Anchorage and had a meeting with a campaign worker according to the complaint. The complaint also states that an employee of the church gave the campaign’s signature booklets. Kendall asserts that the opponents who are ranked are in violation of state disclosure laws and are using the church’s tax status to their advantage.
“I am aware that none of those organizations according to the IRS is supposed to be involved in politics. But they’re still running political affairs within their church with church staff” Kendall said.
In an APOC hearing held last month and in other documents, Mathias has said repeatedly that Wellspring Ministries, a faith-based company which is the owner of South Anchorage, the South Anchorage building, and Wellspring Fellowship, a church is completely separate from the campaign for a ballot measure.
Lawyer Kevin Clarkson represents Mathias and other Alaska opponents of the ranked selection. He stated that Kendall appears to be “harassing” opponents by bringing up numerous complaints.
“He’s doing his best to frighten them away,” Clarkson said.
The campaign’s contractor who works from the Wellspring building, Mikaela Emswiler, is leasing the location, Clarkson said. The anti-ranked choice campaign has paid her $15,000, and she’s reimbursing this rent via her company, Top Fundraising Solutions, LLC. Most likely, Clarkson says, the campaign could have been late in with reporting the expense.
“So okay to file a complaint, and tell APOC that the report is not up to date and let APOC handle the issue,” Clarkson said, “instead of saying all these important things such as Wellspring Ministries is running a shadow campaign.”Good Lord.”
Kendall wants the commission to look into the complaint on a speedy basis. The commission has said it will make a decision on his initial complaint by January. 5.
The advocates for anti-ranked choice say they would like to have collected the required signatures by the end the year.
