Alaska: Op-ed on the recall of State Rep. Lindsey Holmes

Wigi Tozzi, one of the leaders of the State Rep. Lindsey Holmes recall explain why they continue to push forward on the recall, despite the legislative session almost ending.

Tozzi notes that the recall process is "rigged against the voters." The application takes 150 days from the start of the term, needs 808 valid signatures and took 30 days to evaluate -- "just the application process took almost 11 months." Then, the petitioners are allowed to go out and collect their signatures (2,020 additional in this case). And that's only if the petition is approved (it was rejected in the case of Holmes). The op-ed doesn't explain how the petitioners will fight the legal battle.

Here's another couple of big points from this essay:

The Division of Elections denied our application, but in doing so, they did not address the real issues that we were raising -- that in changing her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican after the 2012 election, Ms. Holmes defrauded the voters and her contributors by misrepresenting her intent...

and

 Ms. Holmes demonstrated at least two different ways that the primary system can be gamed. A candidate could run in the Democratic primary to avoid a challenged Republican primary, and a candidate could run in the Democratic primary to avoid the requirement that a candidate be a member of the Republican Party for six months before the filing deadline for the election.