Poll workers set up an early voting station in the atrium of the State Office Building in Juneau, Alaska, on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, the first day of early voting for the 2024 Alaska primary election. (James Brooks / Alaska Beacon)
Voter turnout ahead of Alaska’s Aug. 20 primary election is down from the past two elections but is running ahead of what it was in 2018 and 2016, the last two primaries without extraordinary factors in play.
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In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic emergency spurred many Americans to vote by mail, and in 2022, Alaska’s primary election coincided with a special election for the state’s lone U.S. House seat.
Through Thursday, the Alaska Division of Elections had received 12,578 absentee ballot requests through mail, fax or email, according to figures posted on the division’s website. Additional requests are expected in coming days.
Two years ago, Alaskans requested more than 27,000 absentee ballots by mail, fax or email for the primary, and in 2020, the figure was more than 62,000 for the primary.
The Alaska Republican Party, Alaska Democratic Party and the Voter Participation Center have all sent unsolicited absentee ballot request forms to voters, according to the Division of Elections.
Though this year’s requests are lagging behind the past two primary elections, they’re running ahead of the 10,807 that were issued ahead of the 2018 primary or the 10,364 that were issued ahead of the 2016 primary.
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Those figures do not include thousands more ballots that were cast at early voting sites or at places with in-person absentee voting.
According to the division, 2,100 Alaskans cast ballots at early voting sites between Aug. 5 and Aug. 7 this year.
In-person absentee voting, used at many rural Alaska voting locations, was disrupted last week by delays that prevented ballots from arriving in time for the Aug. 5 start of early voting.
All polling stations were open by Friday, the Alaska Division of Elections said.
James Boxrud, a spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service, said on Friday that the agency “is committed to the secure, timely delivery of the nation’s Election Mail.”
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“Regarding election materials shipped by the Alaska Division of Elections, we are aware those materials have all been delivered or are available for pickup by local election officials. We continue working closely with state and local election authorities to resolve concerns ahead of the August 20th primary election,” he said by email.
Friday was the deadline for Alaskans to request that an absentee ballot be mailed to them, but voters can request an emailed ballot through Aug. 19.
A ballot must be postmarked on or before Election Day to be counted, and because much of Alaska’s mail is postmarked in either Anchorage or Juneau, voters are encouraged to have their ballot postmarked by hand inside a local post office.
Ballots will be counted if they are appropriately postmarked and arrive no later than 10 days after Election Day.
Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.
The first Jesuit missionaries in Alaska sailed up the Yukon River in 1887. By the turn of the 20th century, the religious order of the Catholic Church had as many as 50 Jesuits in the state.
Now, only two remain. And by the end of June, there will be none.
The Jesuits’ nearly 140 years in the state was honored at an event at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church on June 16. A procession of priests wearing long white gowns with red hems walked down the aisle to open the event. The Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Stephen Maekawa, thumped the ground with a shimmering silver staff known as a clozier as he approached the altar.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, walks toward the altar at the Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
“My brothers and sisters, we gather together to celebrate this wonderful and blessed occasion to acknowledge the love of God and the work of God through the 139 year mission of the Society of Jesus of the Jesuit fathers,” Maekawa said to open the event.
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A traditional Catholic mass followed, with readings in both English and Yup’ik. During the sermon, Maekawa acknowledged the vastness of the Fairbanks diocese, and the tremendous amount of work done by the Jesuits to establish it.
“All of the 46 churches of the Diocese of Fairbanks that we currently have were established by either the Jesuit fathers or by direction of a Jesuit bishop,” Maekawa said. “We have a long history of the Society of Jesus’ presence and ministry here in all of Alaska.”
The Jesuits are an order within the Catholic Church, akin to the Dominicans or Franciscans. They have a reputation for taking on some of the Catholic Church’s most remote assignments.
That missionary spirit brought the Jesuits to the Yukon River in 1887, where they built churches, schools, and ministries. Without their work, Catholicism may not have taken root in huge swaths of Alaska, particularly among Alaska Native communities.
The Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
But the Jesuits leave a complicated legacy. Their methods of converting Native people to the religion, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, created generational traumas still felt to this day.
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Fr. Sean Carroll is the provincial of the Jesuits West Province, which oversees Alaska and nine other states.
Fr. Sean Carroll, provincial of the Jesuits West Province, speaks at an event recognizing nearly 140 years of Jesuit service in Alaska.
“Thank you for all that you have taught us about who Jesus is and how to love and serve Him wholeheartedly,” Carroll said. “I also thank you for your patience with us. For there have been times when we have sinned and when we have hurt you.”
Missionaries, including the Jesuits, forcefully converted and assimilated Alaska Native people into Western culture and religion. Students at Jesuit-run boarding schools were forced to abandon their Native languages and physically punished when caught speaking languages other than English. Native dancing and drumming were also banned.
The Jesuits West Province maintains a list of 150 Jesuits with credible claims of sexual abuse against minors or vulnerable adults. A quarter of the accused Jesuits served in Alaska at some point in time.
“I ask for your forgiveness for all that we have done that was not rooted in Christ and love for Him, and for when we did not value your culture nor recognize the presence of God in you,” Carroll said.
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Carroll gave the order to withdraw from the state last spring. A big issue was the recruitment of Jesuits willing to travel and serve in remote villages. He told the congregation that the Jesuits’ work would continue, just without a permanent presence.
Fr. Rich Magner, one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska, attends a ceremony in Bethel.
Fr. Rich Magner is one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska. His last day serving Chevak, Hooper Bay, and Scammon Bay is June 30.
“We all always knew coming in, or should have known, that we’re not going to be here forever. It’s going to be mission accomplished at some point,” Magner said. “And then we hand it off to the diocese that we’ve helped create, and so that’s a good feeling.”
Magner’s next stop is a Clinical Pastoral Education residency in Tacoma, Washington.
The other remaining priest, Fr. Tom Provinsal, first came to Alaska in 1968 to teach. A fond memory, he said, was meeting Elders that practiced traditional subsistence lifestyles.
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“Some of the grandmothers, their fingers were just all bent with arthritis and stuff like that, you know, their whole lives they’ve been working out in the cold and the wet, doing food, sewing, all that kind of stuff,” Provinsal said. “I’d say I just feel very privileged to have come when I did come and to see that.”
Provinsal returned in 1975 as a priest and has served in the region ever since. After moving away, he plans to take a five month sabbatical. What happens next, he said, is in God’s hands.
Two lines formed in the aisle for communion at the end of the mass. After taking communion, Bethel’s Parish Administrator Susan Murphy gave a final thank you.
“It’s difficult to say goodbye to people who have been a part of our lives for so long,” Murphy said. “We know that you have done what was yours to do, and have taught us to do what is ours to do. We are grateful.”
Jesuit priests form a row along the altar of Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church as members of the congregation lift their arms and pray.
Dominic Hunt, a Yup’ik deacon that flew in from Emmonak for the event, led the congregation through a final prayer.
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“Bless them with your wisdom, that they may be a word of hope, a world in need. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen,” Hunt said.
About 70 people posed for a photo on the altar – priests, deacons, parishioners, Elders and children — many of them smiling, some standing quietly.
The photo doesn’t tell the whole story. But it’s a moment when gratitude, grief, and memory all shared the same room.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, stands in the middle of a crowd waiting to take a photo at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
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:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/adn/YKYGXB3KWRDVFLITUEEEGDEBCQ.jpg?ssl=1 "Alaska’s pre-primary election turnout is down from extraordinary 2022 and 2020 primaries")
