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The Alaska Public Service Commission alleges that Anchorage pastor Art Mathias and the organization he founded violated multiple campaign laws in their efforts to overturn Alaska’s open primaries and ranked-choice voting. supported the suit.
In a decision dated Wednesday, the commission charged Mathias and his organization with failing to register, failing to file campaign disclosure documents and posting “funder” identifiers on videos and other campaign materials. As a result, a civil penalty of $94,610 was imposed.
Mathias and Alaskans for Honest Elections and related organizations are pushing for a voting plan that would eliminate the voting system adopted by Alaska voters in 2020. The system features a nonpartisan primary followed by a general election ballot that gives voters the option to rank up to four candidates.
“The commission agreed with nearly every argument we raised,” said the complaint filed on behalf of Alaskans for Better Elections, a group that defends the state’s voting system from repeal attempts. said Scott Kendall, an Anchorage attorney who designed the voting system.
The commission’s maximum fine was $45,000, which was imposed on Mathias himself. It comes after he funneled $90,000 in personal campaign funds through a church-related nonprofit he led and then failed to submit a report identifying the real source of the funds.
Kendall calls it “money laundering.”
“So this is clearly much more serious than the other allegations, and I think the committee handled it appropriately by imposing a sanction at that level,” Kendall said.
Mathias and his lawyer, former Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, deny that the $90,000 was fraudulently passed through an intermediary. They argued at an APOC hearing in November that Mathias’ donations to a church auxiliary had been mixed up with other donations and that the auxiliary had asked Alaskans for Honest Elections to support the abolitionist movement. When he donated the same amount, he claimed it was impossible to say whether the money came from Matthias. or a specific donor.
Matthias and his anti-rank choice group may appeal the commission’s findings in state court. He did not return messages in time for this story.
No matter what the commission does, it cannot block a ballot initiative aimed at repealing the voting system. Opponents of ranked-choice voting intend to submit signatures this month to put the question to voters.
“If we get enough signatures and it’s a valid signature, it will go on the ballot,” Kendall said.
APOC also on Thursday dismissed allegations against former U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka and her anti-voter voting group Preserve Democracy.
APOC is expected to rule soon on another complaint Kendall filed against a group seeking to abolish ranked-choice voting.
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