Here we go again: 'It's fraud if we lose in April'
Ahead of last year's mayoral election, elements associated with the far-right began a concerted disinformation campaign. The narrative alleged that should East Anchorage Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar win the mayoral runoff; it would only be because fraud had been perpetrated against the residents of Anchorage. Seemingly in tandem, spurious accusations were made against Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones and other election officials, asserting they could not be trusted because they were in the pocket of the Anchorage Assembly.
Many Bronson supporters, latching on to lies spread by Trump that widespread election fraud had cost him the 2020 presidential election, shared social media posts alleging that Dominion voting machines were suddenly unable to be trusted even though the Municipality has used Dominion Voting Systems for general election management and tabulation systems since at least 2007.
Candidate Bronson, who at a 2020 Anchorage Trump rally said that the "deep state" was out to ensure Trump would lose the election, affirmed his belief that the presidential election was fraudulent when, according to a Facebook message dated December 9, 2020, said that there was enough cheating to sway the election for Biden.
"In short, Trump won," Bronson wrote.
But don't worry, Bronson told the Anchorage Daily News last March that he's certainly not a QAnon type.
What a relief.
Craftily lending more weight to Trump's lie was the inconspicuous parking of an RV belonging to Bronson's campaign outside the election center 24/7 last May to monitor the election. Familiar terminology used by Trump to bolster his election fraud lies made its way to Bronson's lips.
"We've got certainly a long ways to go," Bronson said at the time. "Our goal is just to make sure that every legal ballot is counted in a fair and balanced manner."
Of course, we can't overlook the Facebook post made by the Bronson campaign on the day of the attempted Capitol Hill insurrection that shared a tweet made by the former president asserting additional ballots had been found in Georgia.
A report issued by the Anchorage Municipal Clerk about last year's election detailed the unprecedented harassment waged against election workers, including officials being "accosted" in the parking lot and a social media post that announced election officials "should be publicly executed."
The Washington Post wrote of last year's election that false claims flowed on local talk radio and blogs about "blank ballots" being smuggled into the Election Center, said to have been part of an effort to "sow distrust among voters."
This year, we can expect more of the same right-wing rhetoric in light of a Matsu-based Alaska Watchman post and link shared yesterday that alleges legitimate concerns about the security of Anchorage's mail-in ballot system and, you guessed, "Dominion voting machines."
The wording in the post is carefully constructed to provoke a fearful response by alleging that without a flood of conservative votes, the election might be handed to incumbent candidates running for office due to "possible election fraud."
The post may be best summarized this way: 'It's fraud if we lose in April.'
In April's upcoming election, progressives and more moderate voters can also flood the election system with their ballots — but not to 'undo' or 'counter' widespread voter fraud the Right claims 'might allegedly maybe kind of' exist — but because free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy and nothing is more democratic than participating in an election to ensure incumbent members of the Anchorage Assembly and School Board retain their seats and that Bronson's backed candidates are defeated so soundly that they never run for political office again.
