Unalaska, AK – A City Council candidate is challenging the results of last week's election, alleging that large numbers of voters who cast ballots in Unalaska were technically ineligible to vote.

In a letter sent to the Unalaska City Clerk's office today, a lawyer for candidate Randall Baker alleges "that substantial numbers of non-residents were allowed and perhaps encouraged to vote" in last week's election. The letter calls for the results to be declared invalid, and for a new election to be held.

Although it doesn't say so in the complaint, Baker said he's specifically concerned about Unalaska's processing plant employees, many of whom he suspects are ineligible to vote.

"I don't believe that the people in the community are having a say in their election," he said. "I think a lot of the people in the community who are voting are not residents of Alaska, let along U.S. citizens."

The Unalaska City Council was expected at tomorrow's meeting to certify the results of last Tuesday's vote, in which Mayor Shirley Marquardt and council member Roger Rowland both won reelection.

Unalaska City Clerk Debra Mack said the certification will be postponed pending the resolution of Baker's complaint. Meanwhile, she said, the city's attorney is investigating the claim, and state officials have been notified as well.

As of this afternoon, representatives of the state Division of Elections said they had not received Baker's complaint.

The role of processing plant employees in local elections in Unalaska has been controversial for years, because of the large number of workers the plants employ and the widespread perception that as seasonal residents they are not truly members of the community. During last year's City Council elections, when two managers from the plant operated by UniSea were running for office, UniSea employees accounted for 13 percent of registered voters.

Plant managers have often been accused of using the sheer numbers of plant employees to swing elections in favor of the processing companies' interests, although no violations of election law have been documented. In last year's state House race, the state Division of Elections received a complaint that several processing plants in Unalaska were coaching their employees to vote for the incumbent Rep. Carl Moses. But a subsequent inquiry turned up no evidence of wrongdoing.

Baker's complaint is unique in that he is challenging not the actions of the plant managers, but the legitimacy of the voters themselves.

"I went through the registration list and found 153 [entries] just for UniSea [employees], and they had one address and one P.O. box," he said. "I would have my doubts that they're actual residents of Alaska."

In his letter, Baker's lawyer cites a state statute declaring that temporary work sites do not constitute the residency required to vote in Alaska. On last year's voter rolls, many employees of the UniSea plant, the largest one on the island, listed the company's general mailing address in Unalaska as their residence.

Baker took the majority of votes in the race for City Council Seat D last week and is facing David Gregory in a runoff for the seat. The council is expected to schedule that election for October 25 at tomorrow's meeting.