Is Facebook Trying To Steal Your Library Records?

It was my understanding that librarians were zealous about keeping library patron's reading habits private.  Here the first part of the American Library Association's Privacy and Confidentiality Q&A at their website:

From the American Library Association:

"In a library, user privacy is the right to open inquiry without having the subject of one’s interest examined or scrutinized by others. Confidentiality exists when a library is in possession of personally identifiable information (see No. 2. “What is personally identifiable information“) about users and keeps that information private on their behalf. Confidentiality is a library’s responsibility. This responsibility is assumed when library procedures create records including, but not limited to closed-stack call slips, computer sign-up sheets, registration for equipment or facilities, circulation records, what websites were visited, reserve notices, or research notes.
Libraries should limit the degree to which personally identifiable information is collected, monitored, disclosed, retained, and transmitted while fulfilling their duty to comply with their state’s library confidentiality statute. Libraries involved in training volunteers, new employees, student assistants, or trustees should inform them of the requirements that they not abuse confidentiality and that they protect library users’ rights of privacy.
For ALA’s privacy policies and “Privacy: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights,” see the web site, 'Privacy and Confidentiality.'” 

So when I got an email from my local library (Loussac in Anchorage) saying I could pick up some books on hold under their new post Corona policy, I checked how to do it.  You have to set up an appointment - like picking up groceries you've ordered in advance.

So I clicked on the video.  Immediately there was a drop down window

Do you want to allow "facebook.com" to use cookies and website data while browsing "anchoragelibrary.org"?
This will allow "facebook.com" to track your activity.
Don't Allow   Allow

When I hit "Don't Allow" the video wouldn't start.  The window sits there waiting for you to click on "Allow."   And I'm sure a lot of folks will.  The video wasn't that important to me (I can't think of anything important enough for me to allow Facebook to track my library record.  But I get it that they are probably tracking a whole lot more than I realize.)

I figured out if I did nothing, the video starts, but when I hit Don't Allow as the video is running it would stop.  This is clearly set up to get people to hit "Allow"

I immediately emailed the head librarian - with this image - and she quickly thanked me for the alert.  

That was two days ago and it's still happening at this page as I write this.  

So I'm just warning folks about this.  If this is really Facebook trying to sneak into people's library records, it's horrendously outrageous.  It's like a backdoor around the American Library Association policies.  

Or perhaps it could be some hacker using Facebook as a cover.  Either way, I'd strongly warn people to avoid hitting the Allow button.

International Ombuds Day Finds 3 Alaskan Ombuds At Loussac

My first book chapter was on the Alaska State and Anchorage Municipal Ombudspersons.  And later I did some follow up chapters.  So I have a special place in my heart for people serving in this office.

Basically, an ombudsperson's job is to take complaints about government service, investigate it, and make recommendations.  An honorable job and the people who carry out these jobs well are on my hero list.

After dropping off a book due at the Loussac library today, I saw the big ombudsman signs and learned it was International Ombudsman Day (2nd Thursday of October for those looking ahead to next year.)  From the International Ombudsman Association website:

"On Thursday, 10 October 2019, IOA invites you to participate in National Ombuds Day. This is the second celebration of a profession that has existed for centuries, yet remains relatively unknown and underutilized.
This Year’s Theme Is
Ombuds: Unusual Name. Important Service.
Ombuds Day serves as an additional opportunity to educate and raise awareness among the public about the history and practices of the ombuds profession including the various ombuds models, the roles they play, the services they offer and the value provided."

Here's Anchorage Municipal Ombudsman Darrel Hess and his  Deputy May Ramirez-Xiong today.

I also got to talk to the State Ombudsperson, Kate Burkhart, who works out of Juneau, but Anchorage also has a state ombuds office as well.  (Note:  She was standing in front of the Long Term Care Ombudsman sign, so, to avoid confusion, I blocked out some of the writing on that sign.)

Also, there was Kathryn Curry, Deputy Long Term Care Ombudsman, of the State's Long Term Care Ombudsperson.  That's a very specialized office that's mandated by Federal Law Older Americans Act.  They specialize, as the name suggests, in investigating complaints about long term care facilities.

And maybe I'll find some time to write about the next installments of the Project Innocence and Pebble Mine classes I attended before the library.

[There's always a non-sexist way to say something.  Ombudsman is the original Swedish word that comes from Old Norse.  The ombuds community discusses different ways to actually say it in non-sexist ways.  My preferences are ombuds and ombudsperson.  I suspect the names above are in statute and people rather not go through the process of changing it.]

Help Plan The Future Of The Anchorage Library System

Alaska Room 2008 

A recent article by Charles Wohlforth discussed the loss of the Alaska room in the library - begun
by flooding when pipes burst and completed by the loss of librarians to maintain it.  It was (and still is) a great space.  But all the Alaskana stuff has been relocated in a much less usable spaces.

"A 2016 study comparing Anchorage's public libraries to other cities of comparable size showed we support them less in every category: fewer hours, books, staff, programs and material purchases. Anchorage spends less than half as much per resident on library materials as other cities.
The Alaska Room had seven dedicated staff when it opened, including an archivist and archive technician, said Merrell, who helped plan and lead it. Now the entire Loussac Library has only five professional librarians."

So here's your chance to help the library get back to its former (though never good enough) self, and perhaps a better incarnation.

Here's the planning outline.

Here's a link to the survey to help the library with their strategic planning

Croatia Beats Russia

Our guests were trying to watch the World Cup game on their phones, so I suggested we check if the Bear Tooth was showing the Croatia v Russia game.  Yes.

Tickets were free and at 10am it wasn't crowded.  Not the greatest two teams at the World Cup, but a great game that Croatia won on the last overtime penalty kick.  Some Russians near us had a drum and a trumpet, but most of the crowd was rooting for Croatia.


The first picture was just after Croatia's first goal.






The second picture is the Croatian team after winning at the last kick.














We stopped at the library for Little J.  It's not often that it's cooler inside than outside in Anchorage.
While he was checking out the kids' section, I was looking at the new books.






Here are a couple reflecting our current political situation - though writing books is a multi-year project usually, so these were probably conceived and begun before Trump was elected.  


Riddle:  What's the difference between Cost and Price?Answer:  Cost is the author and Price is the title.              

From Kirkus Review:

 Focusing on James Madison (1751-1836) and Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), Weekly Standard contributing editor Cost (A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption, 2015, etc.) offers a revealing look at how their contrasting political philosophies shaped the new nation’s domestic and foreign policies. Although they eventually became fierce opponents, Madison and Hamilton began as allies, sharing a belief “that people were easily led astray by selfish interests that undermined the cause of good government.” State oversight could not be trusted to rein in opportunism and greed. Their proposals for fostering a strong federal government, however, were at odds . . .

If we'd learn our history better, maybe we could argue about the real issues.  Maybe we'd understand that the debate is one of conflicting values and fears.  Maybe more people would understand that our government is basically there to support the wealthy and everyone else gets just enough to keep them quiet.  And that's why they need to keep making lots of noise.

From Pop Matters:

Nesi and Brera open with a vignette from 1999 -- the beginning of the end, they note. They yearn to go back to those good old days, or perhaps a bit earlier, when the mistaken path of neoliberalism could still have been avoided. They're not calling for socialism, but for a kinder capitalism (one which acknowledges the "rights conquered over the course of the twentieth century... a high-quality education available to one and all, universal health care, the right to a job and a home").

Neverthelessm their book is essential for any critic of the contemporary situation, because they achieve more ably than most a clear-sighted and beautifully expressed explanation of how untenable the present situation is. They're angry at corporations that try to avoid paying their fair share -- Brera, as an investment manager, understands clearly how his discipline has come to engage in the destructive delusion that undermining the social contract in pursuit of higher profits can ever be a good thing.

If you're thinking The Doors, you're right.  

When we got back from the airport tonight my granddaughter told me I could take the training wheels off her bike because she can ride a two wheeler now.

Loussac Facelift Done, But Not All The Stitches Out Yet

The Loussac library renovations in Anchorage were supposed to be done last October.  They had the grad reopening July 19, but I couldn't go.  I did finally get by there today while running some errands.

In the image below, above is the architect's rendition and below is what it looks like today.  The black is unfinished, so those white panels may still show up.  The stairs have been gone a long time and William Seward is now down in this entrance way - lower left of lower picture.

When this is all complete, I'll do a series of pictures from before renovation to completion.

The new entrance is on the ground floor.   The lobby is approximately the old lobby for the Assembly (Anchorage's city council) on the left and the Marston Theater on the right.  [I made some changes to this paragraph and the next, because they needed it.  I think I must have switched something around it it didn't make sense anymore.]

Here's what it looks like inside.  There used to be a conference room straight ahead, and the elevator and indoor stairs to the second floor - which was the library entrance - are gone.  There's a cafe here to the right now.   Those doors (below the yellow panels) are the entrance from the lobby to the library

Some of this is for former Anchorage residents who are living Outside now.  To the left from this point is the entrance to the Assembly chambers.

And to the right is the Wilda Marston Theater.




















Besides the cafe, the lobby sports this huge metal sculpture hanging from the ceiling.  I'm guessing it might be a whale.  There's  boat way up near where the tail would be and another whale or large fish. I'm guessing there will be other interesting views of this from the second floor.  I didn't go up today.

It didn't dazzle me at first sight.  But looking up into the 'mouth' was interesting.

Aside from the colored lights, there's a mirror.

There was also a exhibit of photos of people who use the library.  Good pictures by Joshua Corbett.  Here are two.

Here's inside the library inner entrance.  So far, there isn't much inside those doors yet.  There's someone to check out books off to the right.  There are some unfinished stairs to the right.

There's this large Rube Goldberg like machine that the librarian said takes book back upstairs from the book drop.  I'm waiting to see it in action, though it does seem a bit excessive for this mundane task.







My only serious disappointment is the same I had after the downtown Museum was renovated - the entrance no longer takes you into the heart of the building - the books.  There are none in sight so far. Instead you now have to negotiate either an elevator or stairs to actually get to the books.  (At the museum, you don't see any art or exhibits until you walk quite a ways.)

When I walked out, the Alaska and Anchorage flags were waving in the breeze with the US flag.

The library now has is probably the world's fanciest book drop sign.  Though I haven't investigated this claim and who knows what other libraries have.   Let's hope they never have to move the book drop.

There are caribou etched (I guess) on a metal sign.  This is on the west side of the library where the entrance has been during the renovation.

Anchorage Pridefest 3: People I Met

What a difference a year makes.

I met Chris Constant last year at Pridefest.  I'd heard his name and vice versa, but we'd never met.  He had a booth as part of his campaign to be on the Municipal Assembly for downtown Anchorage.  Here are some more pictures from last year's fest.

One thing he told me last year, was he was hoping to be the first openly gay Assembly member.  He's pictured here with his mom.

He did get elected to the Assembly (our city council).  But is he the first openly gay Assembly member?  Sort of, but Felix Rivera, another openly gay candidate was also elected, so they are the first two.  When I asked him how things have been so far, he told me that there have been about 100 votes since he was sworn in.  And he and Amy (Demboski who is also on the Assembly and ran for Mayor with a very anti-gay platform) have voted the same except for three times.  But, he added, he also has voted differently from most of his more liberal colleagues about three times as well.

Another reminder that the media's focus on conflict means we think there's a lot more conflict and less cooperation than there really is.  It is easier, and more necessary, for the Assembly members to get along with each other.  There are only eleven members and the meet all year.  They have to find a way to do more than just make nice.

And here's Felix with Elvi Gray-Jackson, the long time assembly member he replaced.

This young man agreed to a picture.  I don't think I got his name, it's not written down in my notes and it was before a got a pen from Konrad at the Alaska Club booth.















But I got this picture of two more rainbow beards later and these are Thomas and Keith.

Here's my friend Kokayi with a friend of his whose name I didn't catch.

And here are some friends from University of Alaska days.

Travis (on the left) is a friend I know from Citizens Climate Lobby and he's in charge of community outreach at St. Mary's.  And to mess with people's stereotypes, he's also a  BP engineer.

And finally, for this post, we have Mary Jo Torgeson, Anchorage's library director.  I'd never met her before and we had a great discussion on a variety of library related topics, but I'll focus on the renovation.  First, why is it so late?  Well, the as-builts weren't accurate and the found things - like pipes of a different size - that caused a lot of delays.  Second, some wanted to close the library during some of the construction which would have sped things up, but keeping it open was the decision.  I don't know how long it would have been closed, but it's been under construction for over a year now and I think I'd prefer it open even if that meant it took longer.  Here's the first post I did on the renovation - back in February 2016.

But the news is they're planning an opening on July 17.  Though there still we be more internal work to finish up even then.

Here's a link to Anchorage Pridefest 1:  The Parade.
Here's a link to Anchorage Pridefest 2:  Businesses with Pridefest Booths

First Chinese Pres, Then US VP, Now An Emperor Make Refueling Stop In Anchorage

Not even two weeks ago, Chinese President Xi, made a refueling stop in Anchorage on his way home, after meeting with president Trump in Florida.  He had enough time to talk to the Gov Bill Walker about trade, and to ride down Turnagain Arm.

Then just this last weekend US Vice President Pence also stopped to see the governor, on his way to South Korea.

We also have an emperor visiting as well, and he's fueling up too.  This time it's a threatened  emperor goose - a ways out of its normal range, which is western Alaska and coastal Russia.  He's been hanging out near Loussac library where I got these pictures today.

There are lots of Canada geese nearby as well.  I wasn't able to interview the emperor to find out why he decided to spend a few days in Anchorage.  He was clearly busy refueling.

Here's the Alaska Fish and Game description of emperors, and a report on emperor's visiting British Columbia.

Loussac Update And Vote

Went by Loussac library while doing errands. It keeps changing.  Here's are some shots at other stages.

If it isn't obvious, I photoshopped the sign into the main picture (which was through the chainlink fence.)  The sign says it's scheduled to be finished by October 24 this year.

I also voted on this ride.  We're headed out of town the day before the primary, so I decided to do my duty today since it was on my roundabout path to get things done.

You can vote early various places.  Voting on Gamble meant I didn't have to fill out all the forms I've had to fill out when I voted at the library.  It was pretty empty and there was no wait at all.  And I joked as I showed my ID about how often I was going to vote.  The lady said a number of folks had mentioned it.  But, she said, in Alaska, if you don't use a picture id or your voter registration card, then your ballot goes into a special envelope and doesn't get counted until after the election when they can check if you voted more than once.  So, there is an easy way to deal with that sort of voter fraud.   Even remote provinces like Alaska can figure it out.

Then I rode the bike trail around Goose Lake to drop off some books at the UAA library and check out the new books shelf.  I'll post some of the new books in the next post or two.

Gulls Swarm Red Tailed Hawk Demo At Loussac

I was at Loussac Library yesterday - below is an update photo of the renovation you can compare to he earlier ones here - and they had a women giving a talk with a red tailed hawk on her arm.  There were a number of interesting factoids - they keep the eggs at 100˚F and their body temp is even higher - and people were asking questions - "Do you ever worry about that beak being so close to your face?" (A:  "I her food source and she trusts me to protect her.")


At one point the speaker pointed out that the hawk was checking out the few gulls flying by.  And then people began noticing there were a lot more gulls.  And then a couple dove at the hawk - breaking their dive still pretty well above it.

At this point, I figured the still picture didn't cut it and I switched to video.  It starts out with a very brief shot of the woman holding the hawk, then goes up to the sky where we see and hear the gulls swarming about and making lots of noise - presumably a danger call, that a predator is in the area.

Then we go back to the platform as the speaker decides it's a good idea to put the red tailed hawk back into her carrying case, and then back up to the gulls (which is the thumbnail that's on the video.)



The representative of the library explained that normally these sorts of demonstrations take place indoors, but due to the renovations, the Marsden Auditorium wasn't available.  Actually, this made for a much more natural and interesting lesson in bird behavior.

Here's an overview of a Stanford study on gull-predator behavior:

"When a weasel, fox, or other predator enters a breeding colony of gulls, numerous birds gather in the air above the intruder, making it very conspicuous. Gulls come from a considerable distance and circle or hover over the predator for quite a while, sometimes even landing in its vicinity before returning to their territories. With the exception of those whose nests are immediately threatened, the gulls show little inclination to attack. Instead they appear nervous and ready to flee. 

Experiments using models of predators show that breeding Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls are more attracted to models that have a dead gull placed close to them than they are to the models alone. Furthermore, once gulls have seen a predator model with a dead gull, they are more attracted to it if experimenters place it within the colony again on the same day, even without the dead gull. Indeed, there is some evidence that the heightened reaction to the predator lasts at least a day after it is seen with the dead bird. This heightened reaction is specific to the predator model seen with the corpse -- there is no increased reaction to a model of a different predator subsequently presented in the same place. After seeing a predator model with a dead gull, the live gulls alight farther from the model on subsequent encounters. They remain attracted, but are more cautious. 

These results indicate that the attraction of the gulls to their enemies is a method of learning about them. Apparently they can generalize -- they draw conclusions about the predator after another gull has had a lethal encounter with it. This is a beneficial reaction, since mammalian predators such as weasels and foxes may engage in "surplus killing -- dispatching more victims than they can consume. Also these hunters can specialize for a period of time on one group of prey. An animal that has killed one gull may be more likely to kill others; individual foxes have been observed habitually killing gulls in breeding colonies. It requires little imagination, then, to see the potential adaptive advantage for gulls of investigating predators."

And here's a view of the front of the library as of June 1, 2016.  You can see some March 23 and May 11 pictures here.

Loussac Remodel Update - Atrium Is Gone (Repost*)

Here's Loussac Library (Anchorage's main libray) on May 10, 2016.  They've taken out the whole atrium area.  The geometric metallic grid is, I believe, what held up the ceiling/roof glass.  The whole glassed-in area is now gone.





Below is pretty much the same view on Loussac's opening back in 1986.

Image from 2012 What Do I Know? post

And here's the atrium back on March 23 of this year.  The stairway and the deck with the statue of William Seward are gone.

And today, all the glass is gone.  I think those X's in the top row of windows are the bracing that is sitting out in front now in the top picture (and a couple below.)  It's scary that I only 'think' this,

that I'm not sure.  For all the times I was in there, you'd think I'd be certain.  But I guess I never observed as carefully as I should have.  But it did make enough of an impression that I 'think' that's it.

The top picture was taken from the stairs in the Alaska room to the right of this picture.  But the library wasn't open when I was there tonight, so this is from on top of the grassy slope to where the entrance deck was.

This is looking directly to where the glassed atrium was against the wall there.

Here's a better view of the grid.  It'd make a great playground feature.  I'm wondering if it's going back in as part of the new library or if it's just sitting here until it's taken away.  Based on this picture of what the entrance will look like, it appears this grid is headed for the scrap pile.  I still think it should be a playground jungle gym..

Image from Anchorage Library Foundation

The Alaska Journal of Commerce had a different view of the entrance.  It looks different from the one above.  From what I can tell, the top one was later than the bottom one.

Image from Alaska Journal of Commerce

I wasn't the only one there checking this out and I knew I had to include this next picture, particularly for Michelle.

To put all this in context, here are some excerpts from the 2010 Anchorage Library Master Plan:

"Some upgrades to the Z. J. Loussac building have already been completed and others are underway; however, additional improvements, including the redesign of the Library entrance, are on hold because of the failure of an April ballot proposition that would have partially funded that project." (p. 19)

"Some upgrades to the Z. J. Loussac building have already been completed and others are underway; however, additional improvements, including the redesign of the Library entrance, are on hold because of the failure of an April ballot proposition that would have partially funded that project." (p. 44)

"A concept for redesigning the entrance area exists but has not been implemented due to a lack of funding. A library staff committee produced an excellent report that contained ideas for the revitalization of several of the Loussac Library’s interior spaces. Many components for moving the Loussac Library in the direction of becoming Anchorage’s community living room are available but have not yet been acted upon." (p. 44)

From a September 2015 memo on delays in construction, we do have this estimated opening date.

"Based upon the changed scope-of-work, which has added days and is subject to change again as the project proceeds, the new scheduled opening of the Entry and Upgrades is set for December 31, 2016."

The the Library Foundation website says:

"The Z.J. Loussac renewal began in May 2015 and is scheduled to be finished in early 2017." 

Maybe they can have the opening before every little detail is finished. 

[*Repost - that's a warning to those who subscribe and have already seen this.  Feedburner is being balky again.  As I mentioned in the last post, this seems to be due to Google neglect of this feature (See "Feedburner:  Google's Biggest Screwup") and I have to find a new way to get the RSS feeds to other blogrolls for more consistency and speed.]

About 5000 Votes Still To Be Counted In Anchorage Election

I talked to the Municipal Deputy Election Clerk (that means she works in the Clerk's office and is the Deputy Clerk in charge of the elections) Amanda Moser this morning.  I had two questions:

1.  How come there were already 2076 votes already posted on the 20:03pm unofficial election results?  [Those results are no longer available online, but I put them up at that link.]  Where were these votes from?

2.  How many votes were still to be counted?

Let me answer Question 2 first.  It's a much shorter answer and comes up again in Question 1. There are about 5000 votes to be counted.  These include absentee by mail that came in yesterday and today (and will trickle in for a few more days), absentee in person, and questioned ballots.  Absentee in person means people voted at one of the polling places, like Loussac library, before the election.  Questioned votes are for people who voted out of their precincts or didn't have ID, or other irregularity that caused the precinct worker to have questions about the voter.

Question 1:  What were those 2076 votes already counted before any of the precincts had brought their boxes to election central?

Amanda Moser told me that these were absentee by mail votes that the Clerk's office had received BEFORE Tuesday.  The office decided that since they had them already, it might be interesting to just get them up right away after the election, so people would have some numbers to look at as soon as the polls closed.  I didn't remember that from previous elections and Moser confirmed they hadn't done that in previous elections.

You can see those early numbers in my first post from last night.  They were much more conservative than the actual outcome.

ASSEMBLY - DISTRICT 3 - SEAT DPERMAN, Ira 40 11.66%DARDEN, Dustin 11 3.21%CROFT, Eric 114 33.24%TROMBLEY, Adam 178 51.90%Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

Trombley was leading with 51.9% of the vote among these early voters.

In the last count, he got 33% to winner Croft's 45%.

ASSEMBLY - DISTRICT 4 - SEAT FALLEVA, Ron 111 39.78%TRAINI, Dick 164 58.78%Write-in Votes 4 1.43%

This race ended up Traini 62% to Alleva 35%.  Not as big a change.  

ASSEMBLY - DISTRICT 5 - SEAT HDUNBAR, Forrest 188 45.97%GALES, Terre 219 53.55%Write-in Votes 2 0.49%

Gales went from 53% over Dunbar's 45%  in this first set of ballots to Dunbar 60% and Gales 39% in the latest count.  

ASSEMBLY - DISTRICT 6 - SEAT JSCHIMSCHEIMER, Mark 76 13.82%WEDDLETON, John 170 30.91%TAYLOR, Treg 301 54.73%Write-in Votes 3 0.55%

The latest count in this race has Weddleton ahead 43% over Taylor's 40%.  Weddleton leads by 290 votes.  There are 5000 or so votes yet to count city wide.  The total counted so far is 43,000 and this Assembly race had 10,800 votes, just under 25%.  So, there are maybe 1200 votes left to be counted from the absentee by mail and in-person votes.  For Taylor to win, he'd need to get 300 more votes than Weddleton.  It would have to be at least 750 to 450.  Or, put another way, he'd have to pick up 62% of the remaining votes.  (And there was one more candidate in the race I'm not even considering.)   That's highly unlikely.  He didn't even have that big a margin in this early vote that was clearly leaning right.  


SCHOOL BOARD - SEAT A
DAVIS, Bettye 840 44.03%
HUGHES, Brent 1050 55.03% Write-in Votes 18 0.94%

This one really turned around.  Davis won with 56% of the vote to 42%.  

SCHOOL BOARD - SEAT B
SCHUSTER, Kay 693 37.77%
NEES, David 604 32.92%
MARSETT, Starr 519 28.28%

I didn't even know who Kay Schuster was.  Her website is pretty bland.  But there was a Republican Women's fundraiser for her at McGinley's pub with supporters including former Mayor Sullivan.  Nees has run as a  conservative in the past.  

The last count had Schuster with 35% and Marsett with 34%.  

This one is still too close to call.  With 5,000 votes outstanding in this city wide race , Marsett would have to get 40% of the remaining votes.  Not as big a challenge as Treg Taylor has in his Assembly race, but still a formidable challenge.  Particularly if the remaining votes - mostly absentee by mail or in person - have any sort of conservative leaning as the first set of absentee by mail votes had.  


So, either conservatives are more likely to vote by mail, or the Republicans did a better job of getting their voters to vote by mail.  In either case, that first set of votes we got last night had a significantly more conservative tinge than the eventual outcomes.  

Some other issues from yesterday's elections came up in my conversation with Amanda Moser, but I need to review my notes more carefully before I post on that.  It involves aging voting machines and memory cards which caused machines not to read people's cards the first, second, or third times, and required some complete recounting for some precincts.


[Blogger notes.  When I realized that answering Question 2 first made more sense, why didn't I just make that one Question 1?  Good question.  I thought about switching the question numbers around.  But Question 1 really was my first question, the one that got me to call the Clerk's office to ask.  

I'd also note that I did contribute to two of the candidates mentioned in this post.  I know old time journalists got taught that to remain impartial, they shouldn't ever contribute to a campaign.  Some even believe they shouldn't vote.  I already had trouble as an academic about having to use language that imagined that I was some objective observer who had no opinions.  Of course reporters have opinions.  Some can step back and write reasonably objectively and some can't.   I think it's better to just state your biases up front and let the reader consider how that bias might have impacted the story.  

In this case, my reporting on specific races is as objective as it can be - just citing numbers and probabilities.  And where I mention loaded words like ' conservative' and 'liberal,' I'm not voicing any opinion that hasn't been voiced already by people seen as on the left or on the right.  So I don't think it's necessary to mention the specific candidates I wrote checks for.  Readers who need to know, can look it up on the APOC website. I doubt it will be a surprise to regular readers.]

Alaska Democrats Caucus Heavily For Bernie Sanders

My district voted 238 for Sanders and 80 for Clinton.  As I was walking out I checked at the desk that was collecting the tallies and was told that the rural districts were mostly reported and had a similar break down - 3-1 for Sanders.

Some numbers first.   I've gone through the division of elections list of registered voters, updated March 4, 2016.  I've gone through each district and collected the

total of registered Anchorage Democrats:  32,485    (The vast majority of registered voters have not identified a political party.)

As I got near West High I was glad I'd gone by bike because people were parking  and walking up to a half a mile away.   There was a huge line when I arrived about 10am and I was told the auditorium, largest auditorium in the state and seats 2000.)

where they were having presentations, was already full.

[Photo:  the line stretches out the same in the other direction.  The target was the auditorium entrance which is the highest point in the building ahead]

So, the auditorium already had about 6% of the Anchorage registered voters.



It turned out I had to go to a table for my precinct which was on the other end of a very crowded hallway.  There were no open paths to go in either directions.  Every now and the there was an opening and a trickle of people went one way - usually the opposite direction from where I needed to go.

A couple of shots of the crowd I was in.

I'd guess there were at least another couple of thousand,  (which would add up to at least 12% of the Anchorage Democrats)  if not more just in the hallways trying to get to their desk to sign in and get a district card.  It turned out my desk was next to another entrance and it seemed to make more sense to go out and walk around the building rather than try to fight my way back through the throng.

It turned out there were still lots of folks trying to get into the building from this entrance.

And they couldn't get in because the fire marshall was there and they weren't letting people into the building.  (This made Loussac Libray look like a wilderness area.]

How many still outside or already into caucus rooms?  Conservatively, I'd say maybe another 1000 which would get the totals up to about 18% of registered Democrats.   But that number is misleading because a lot of people were registering to become Democrats on the spot.  Is that a high number for caucusing?  I checked Iowa caucus number for Democrats - the report I saw didn't yet have the total number but said there were 240,000 who caucused in 2008.   I check the Iowa Democratic registration for January 2008 and it was just over 600,000.  So that's about 40%.  But that's a big caucus state that gets lots of attention because it caucuses first in the country.  Alaskans aren't really used to caucusing.  The last caucus was 2008 for Obama and I'm trying to compare the turnout in my head to then.  It was at a different location, on a weeknight.  The building was packed, but not quite as bad as today.  But I think things were spread out differently so you didn't have the registration desks in the hallway blocking the halls.

As I walked around the building I passed the fire vehicle.  There was also a big truck.

Eventually, I made it to the rooms designated for my district.  One for Clinton and one for Sanders.  But they'd already liberated a second, and then a third, for Sanders.  The picture above is the original Sanders room.

As I said, my district voted 238 to 80 for Sanders over Clinton.

On the way out I stopped at the desk that was collecting all the totals.  My district was one of the first
to turn in their numbers.  But the reports from other districts in the rural areas were in and I was told the numbers were roughly the same proportion for Sanders.





Right now Google has posted this:

"Alaska caucus Last updated Mar 26, 2016 at 2:01 PM AKT REPUBLICANDEMOCRATIC Mar 26 16 delegates 38% reporting
Delegates Votes
Sanders (won) 9 78.7% 181
Clinton 0 21.3%
49 Source: AP "