A comment on Facebook by a campaign worker for Democratic candidate for governor Tony Knowles provoked a letter from Lt. Gov. Loren Leman last week defending his job overseeing elections.

The Republican lieutenant governor, who is the top elections official in the state, said in a Sept. 26 e-mail to Knowles that the campaign's Facebook profile administrator, Andy Hughes, was "incorrect" in saying that he didn't care whether every vote counts.

"I commend you for encouraging people to register to vote – and to actually vote," Leman said. "However Andy's comment about my thoughts about vote counting is strange – and disconcerting."

Hughes, a University of Chicago student, oversees Knowles' Facebook page, which the Sun Star reported on Sept. 26. In its article, the Sun Star quoted an entry on Facebook by Hughes encouraging Knowles supporters to vote.

"This is obviously a tremendously important election and it's going to be very close, so every vote counts (despite what Loren Leman might think)," Hughes wrote Sept. 11.

Leman sent a copy of his 472-word e-mail to the Sun Star. He also sent a copy to the Anchorage Daily News, which had blogged about the college newspaper's report.

Knowles spokeswoman Patty Ginsburg said Thursday the campaign has expressed regret for the remarks.

"We apologized," Ginsburg said. "You know, not a big deal."

Leman, in an interview Friday, said he hadn't received an apology yet, though he would be happy if he did. He said he had never heard of Facebook and that he found out about the comment after someone brought it to his attention.

"I wanted candidate Knowles to know that there's someone in his campaign saying that," Leman said.

The Knowles campaign declined to make Hughes available for comment. In a comment posted on Facebook on Sept. 26, Hughes linked to Leman's letter, but did not directly respond to it.

"This Facebook campaign has gotten a bit serious as we've now been reported on by the UAF student newspaper," Hughes wrote.

Democrats have had several run-ins with the Division of Elections during Leman's tenure.

The Alaska Democratic Party sued the state in December 2004 for not turning over raw 2004 election data collected by voting machines. The party contended discrepancies in the district-by-district counts and official vote total, and it wanted to independently verify the numbers.

The state initially refused the request, citing security concerns, but ultimately relented two weeks ago. Leman said he wasn't involved in the decision on whether or not to release the election data.

During an interview a week before Leman sent his e-mail, Ethan Berkowitz, Knowles' running mate and candidate for lieutenant governor, said the state shouldn't allow the source code of election machines manufactured to remain secret.

"You need absolute and total transparency in elections," Berkowitz said.

In 2003, three Democratic state representatives sued the state and Leman for allegedly illegally delaying certification of a ballot initiative concerning temporary appointments to U.S. Senate vacancies. The Democrats ultimately won. Berkowitz said groups shouldn't have to go to court to get a referendum item on the ballot.

Lemam said election officials are hard working, trustworthy people. Elections also continue to improve, he said. The state began using touch-screen voting this year, and plans are afoot to create an online database of registered voters, he said.

But rumors of vote manipulation simply aren't true, Leman said.

"I ensure you – that's not happening in Alaska," he said.