The Nenana City Council met in a special meeting Monday night to consider complaints filed by four citizens about its recent municipal election, deciding to hold a new one according to its mayor.
City code in the town of 417 people allows for an election challenge. Mayor Joshua Verhagen, who won reelection by 11 votes, posted about the challenges of the Oct. 1 election on his official Facebook page.
“An election may be contested only upon the filing by a city voter of a written affidavit specifying with particularly the grounds for the contest,” Verhagen said.
Verhagen also said in the post that the council met to deliberate, and unanimously decided to hold a new election.
According to the code, an affidavit can be filed with the municipal clerk, then the council considers the affidavit and hears testimony. The council may order a further investigation, order a recount of the ballots, call a new election or runoff election, or declare that the contest is without merit.
Verhagen reported that four affidavits were filed by Rhonda Coghill, Megan Baker, Ricky Turner and Kari Irish. Turner ran for a council seat but lost this election.
The Oct. 1 election was for mayor, two council seats and two school board seats. City Administrator Nicole Shreve at the time said turnout was high – more than 50%, with 197 of 345 people on local voter rolls casting a ballot.
Verhagen wrote that he did not believe the decision to hold a new election was made lightly. He said on Facebook that “it was acknowledged that several errors were made that could give room for doubt as to the integrity of the election.”
He said that on several occasions, council members stated they don’t think there was malicious intent or intentional wrongdoing by anyone handling parts of the election process.
Verhagen, Shreve and Nenana’s city clerk could not be reached for comment or did not return calls to KUAC Monday evening.
In Verhagen’s post, he said that the city is consulting this week with local government specialists and is seeking legal advice before making statements or taking next steps.
Verhagen thanked the election judges, the city clerk, Shreve and others for doing a hard job that is easily scrutinized. He also thanked the council and community members for being willing to work to improve and refine the process.
According to city code, a special election could be called by the city council with 20 days’ notice to the public.
The council will meet again Monday to discuss the details of the new election.
