September 23, 2004- Citing bias and plain errors, the sponsors of the Trust the People initiative submitted a letter to Lt. Governor Leman today accusing his office of "violating his duty to provide an impartial summary" and demanding modification of the ballot language generated by his office from the November 2nd General Election ballot.

"The language posted on the Division of Elections website summarizing the initiative is incorrect," said Eric Croft, one of the three sponsors of the initiative, "our initiative intends to make sure that no one appoints Alaska's US Senators, and the ballot summary language misstates this purpose, misstates the amount of time, and illegally editorializes."

Croft goes on to suggest replacing the ballot language with, "Under this measure, a vacated seat could only be filled by an election and no person would be allowed to serve in the US Senate for Alaska by appointment."

"The point of this initiative is that Alaskans should be able to vote for their US Senate representation. I personally don't want anyone representing me that I haven't had a chance to vote either for or against," said Peggy Wilcox, campaign manager for the Yes on 4 campaign, "this initiative was prompted by outrage that the Governor appointed his daughter to his US Senate seat. The only way Alaskans can be sure this can't happen again is by voting yes on proposition 4, and removing the power of appointment from the Governor."

"Politicizing ballot language is just one more twist by the Murkowski administration to defeat this initiative," continued Wilcox, "They tried at every opportunity to keep it off of the ballot, and when they failed, they opted to slant the ballot language. I applaud the sponsors of the initiative for calling the administration on the carpet for their last ditch effort to derail this issue"

Links to Ballot Language:

http://www.gov.state.ak.us/ltgov/elections/forms/04genrballotmeasures.pdf

Initiative Language:

http://www.gov.state.ak.us/ltgov/elections/petitions/03senv.htm

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