Unalaska, AK – Today was the first day of an investigation into misconduct in last week's city election, and investigators spent most of it looking through voter registration rolls and interviewing processing plant managers. Meanwhile, the parties who filed last week's challenge say they're disappointed with how the process is unfolding so far.

City Clerk Debra Mack, City Manager Chris Hladick and City Attorney Brooks Chandler spent all day seated around a table in the Unalaska City Council chambers at City Hall. The vast majority of that time was spent sifting through registration data for the past two elections, trying to discern which voters could be considered temporary residents.

The issue they say remains to be resolved is whether someone who spends half the year working in Unalaska and half of it at a residence somewhere else can be considered eligible to vote. This question centers mostly on the seafood processing plants in Unalaska, where many seasonal workers live.

Representatives of the Westward Seafoods and UniSea plants were interviewed for clarification on the subject. Chandler asked UniSea Operations Manager Rocky Caldero, who is also on the City Council, whether it would be possible to sort out UniSea's year-round employees from its more temporary workforce. Caldero said that would be difficult.

"We'd have to do that by hand, and that would take a long time," he told the investigators.

Chandler also asked Caldero if there was any reason to believe that UniSea employees would be naturally inclined to vote more for one candidate than another. Caldero said there wouldn't be, because all candidates were given the opportunity to campaign at the plant.

Charles Dunnagan doesn't buy any of this. He's the Anchorage-based attorney for Randall Baker, the City Council candidate who's challenging last week's election. Over the phone this afternoon, he described the investigation as toothless.

"If they sent these guys to investigate the legislature, what they'd do is call Pete Kott to testify and ask him if there was any bribery going on," he said, referring to the state legislator who was convicted in the VECO corruption case last month. "Well, we had envisioned something a little different."

The letter Dunnagan drafted for Baker earlier this week charges that a large number of seasonal workers were allowed to vote even though they were not residents of Unalaska and in some cases U.S. citizens. Dunnagan said that by spending all day today on the blurry issue of residency, the investigators were ignoring the clear-cut issue of citizenship. He said he's passed on to the investigators the names of at least two registered voters he believes are not U.S. citizens, and given that the margin of victory in the mayor's race was only three votes, that should be enough to cast serious doubt on the validity of the election results.

As of broadcast time this evening, the city investigators were still involved in the process and therefore weren't available to respond.

Meanwhile, the state Division of Elections is keeping clear of the investigation, on the grounds that the election was a city and not state matter. In a letter faxed to Chandler today, state Elections Director Whitney Brewster said representatives of her agency would not be interviewed telephonically or otherwise involved personally in the proceedings, although they would provide voter registration information if necessary.

Dunnagan said if he and Baker aren't convinced of the legitimacy of the investigation, and if they amass enough evidence of non-citizens voting, they'll press their case beyond the city level.

"If our fears continue to be borne out by the information we've received, we're not going to go away," he said. "And we're going to involve whatever other agencies we need to involve in order to get this problem fixed."

The investigation will continue tomorrow morning at City Hall.