Voters in Anchorage on Tuesday appear
to have rejected an ordinance which would have added sexual
orientation and gender identity to the Anchorage Equal Rights
Initiative.
With more than 90 percent of precincts
reporting, the measure was failing with 58 percent of voters opposed
to Proposition 5, the Anchorage
Daily News reported.
Neither One Anchorage, which supported
the measure, nor Protect Your Rights – Vote No On Prop 5, the
campaign to defeat it, had released a statement as of Wednesday
morning.
An unexpectedly high turnout led some
polling places to run out of ballots, which resulted in many replacement
ballots – created from photocopies – having to be counted by
hand. The confusion and long lines frustrated some people who gave
up and left without voting. Municipal clerk Barbara Gruenstein said
an official result may be days away.
“We have complete faith in the
electoral process, and the clerk's office needs to be the one to
evaluate the situation,” said Trevor Storrs, spokesman for the One
Anchorage campaign.
A poll of 500 voters conducted by
Dittman Research Communications favored supporters, with 50 percent
saying they favored the measure and 41 percent opposed. Nine percent
refused to answer.
A similar ordinance approved by the
Anchorage Assembly was vetoed by Mayor Dan Sullivan in 2009.
(Related: Anchorage
gay protections Prop 5 supporters call opponents' ad “dehumanizing.”)