By Suzanne Downing 
The Municipal Clerk of Anchorage is pushing back hard on a New York Times story that claimed the city is preparing to let all voters cast ballots from their smartphones in the upcoming 2026 municipal election.
In a lengthy rebuttal, Municipal Clerk Jamie Heinz accused the nation’s paper of record – and even an Anchorage election official quoted in the piece – of misrepresenting how Anchorage’s system actually works.
The Times story, titled “Will People Trust Voting by Phone? Alaska Is Going to Find Out,” described Anchorage as a test case for phone-based voting and suggested the city is about to embark on a “new experiment” involving ballots cast by smartphone. Heinz said none of that is true.
“Readers of the New York Times have been led to believe the MOA Elections team has embarked on some novel, unsecure agenda on the bleeding edge of integrity in local elections. Rest assured, municipal voters: the article is an egregious misrepresentation of MOA Elections,” she wrote.
The clerk said that Anchorage has not changed how voters will cast ballots in the 2026 Regular Municipal Election and that the Times fundamentally misunderstood what Anchorage already has in place: a long-standing electronic voting accommodation used by a small number of voters who are out of state, deployed overseas, working remotely, or otherwise unable to receive mail ballots during election season.
Anchorage has offered electronic ballot options – email and fax – since 2018. In 2024, the Assembly approved adding a secure document portal, which debuted in the 2025 municipal election. Voters must apply to use these options, verify their identity, and receive a PIN to access a virtual ballot. Once returned, the ballot is printed at the city’s Election Center and processed with all others.
According to Heinz, this is not a smartphone “experiment,” nor is it new. Only 147 of the more than 60,000 ballots cast in 2025 were submitted electronically, and the majority of them used the new secure portal. She emphasized that these accommodations exist specifically for voters who cannot receive or return a mail ballot on time – not for the general electorate.
Heinz also contradicted the Times’ suggestion that this would be a broad, transformative trial. “This is factually inaccurate,” she wrote. “There are no changes to the options for voters to cast their ballots in the upcoming 2026 Regular Municipal Election.”
All registered Anchorage voters will continue to receive ballots by mail for the April 7, 2026 municipal election.
The dispute leaves Anchorage’s top elections official openly correcting the national newspaper — and even implicitly correcting her own election clerk, who spoke to the Times for the story. For now, Anchorage voters abroad or away from home will still be able to use email, fax, or the secure document portal. But the claim that Anchorage is about to test smartphone voting, Heinz said, simply isn’t true.
Ah, so ‘paper’ it is!
So the election clerk as poor communication skills, didnt know how to talk well to not confuse a journalist
Well this rebuttal begs a few questions:
Who tipped off the NYT?
What was the NYT initial premise for the interview and who authorized Mrs. Edwards to speak on the record even with her picture in the paper?
From the NYT article:
“We have a high transient population — military, oil and gas, fishing, tourism — our people are always on the move,” said Liz Edwards, the election administrator in Anchorage. “And so we’ve been trying to make it even easier for them to vote and make it so you don’t really have an excuse not to vote anymore.”
Hmm tourism? Since when do we allow tourists to vote in municipal elections or those, who are just here temporarily for 3 months in the summer to work?
This entire episode leads me to wonder if
A) The NYT used AI to write some highly questionable article OR
B) This was a trial balloon from some city official to see how much push back this idea would get.
Fake news. Who wudda known.
Anyway, somebody is lying.
What is a “secure document portal”? A cell phone?
Why trust an Outside, east coast, mainstream, hoax generating, fake news outlet like the New York Times?
The clerk lied!! Here is what is happening. Neither Mead Treadwell or Loren Leman, both who serve in municipal election commission knew about it. Why call it a secure document portal? It is a cell phine. How secure is that?
Bradley Tusk is a venture capitalist and political strategist whose work is relevant to Alaska because his foundation is funding a pilot program for mobile voting in Anchorage, using new open-source software called VoteSecure. This pilot is part of a larger national campaign to make mobile voting a more widespread option for US elections. Tusk is also known for his work with companies like Uber and his philanthropic efforts, which include this mobile voting initiative and a push for universal school meals.
Mobile voting pilot: Bradley Tusk’s foundation is funding the development of VoteSecure, a new open-source mobile voting software that will be used in some local elections in Alaska. The goal is to test the technology’s viability, with a long-term vision of making mobile voting more common in US elections.
Political and business career: Tusk is the CEO and founder of Tusk Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups in regulated industries. He is also the founder of political consulting firms, such as Tusk Strategies, and has served in high-level roles, including campaign manager for Mike Bloomberg and as Uber’s first political advisor.
Philanthropy: In addition to his work in the tech and politics, Tusk Philanthropies is a major supporter of Tusk’s initiatives, such as the push for mobile voting and the national campaign for universal school breakfast programs.
Will People Trust Voting by Phone? Alaska Is Going to Find Out.
Nov 13, 2025 — * Through its election vendor, Democracy Live, Anchorage will use technology built by the Mobile Voting Project, a new nonprofit open-source program…
The New York Times
So the New York Times randomly did a press release saying Anchorage was using vote by cell phone? Strange.
So again, what is a “secure document portal”? A cell phone?