JUNEAU, Alaska — Alannah Hurley still gets choked up recalling Democrat Mary Peltola’s election to Alaska’s only U.S. House seat in 2022. Hurley, like Peltola, is Yup’ik and called Peltola’s election — in which she became the first Alaska Native in Congress — monumental for Hurley and her daughters.

“Finally, we have somebody in Congress who looks like us, talks like us, grew up like us, and they have lived experience, understanding the beauty and the challenges of what it means to be Native in this state and the nation,” Hurley said.

Peltola, 51, is in a tough reelection fight against Republican Nick Begich in a high-stakes race that could help determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the House. The campaign follows a year of intense personal tragedy for the lawmaker, who lost her mother and her husband, Eugene Peltola, within a four-month span in 2023.

Peltola called the weeks around her husband’s death in a small plane crash some of the most difficult of her life. She returned to Washington about a month later, arriving amid a period of Republican infighting over the House speakership. She said then that it was a difficult time for the country, too, and that she was “ready to get to work.”

While Peltola has not spoken much publicly about navigating her grief in the glare of the public eye, people who know her well say they’ve been struck by her resilience.

“When I think about how Mary just kind of kept her head up throughout everything that she has gone through in the past couple years, I’m extraordinarily proud of her,” said Alaska’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, who first met Peltola about 25 years ago when they were in the state legislature and they bonded as moms with boys.

“She was not allowed to grieve the way that most people would be allowed to grieve. She needed to be tough. She needed to be there at her job.”

Murkowski, a moderate who has at times bucked her own party, including its embrace of former President Donald Trump, supported Peltola two years ago and has backed her again. She noted the hyper-partisan state of politics today, where each party looks to deny the other a win.

“That’s not going to separate me from being able to say, ‘This is a good woman, a strong Alaskan who has focused on her state, who has done well for us,’” Murkowski said.

Alaska’s other Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, has endorsed Begich, a businessman from a family of prominent Democrats, including his late grandfather, Nick, who once held the House seat, and uncle Mark, a former U.S. senator.

Begich, who ran against Peltola in 2022, in races that included Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin, said he doesn’t think Peltola has done enough to push back against actions taken by the Biden administration that have limited resource development in the state.

He is also trying a different tack than in 2022, which was the first year elections were conducted under a voter-approved system of open primaries and ranked-choice general elections. Trump, who has railed against ranked voting, previously blamed Begich for costing Republicans the seat by staying in the race that year.

This time, Begich sought to consolidate conservative support after the primary, in which he was the top-placing Republican, second to Peltola. Two other Republicans who were set to advance to the general election withdrew, which allowed two candidates who got a combined 1% of the vote, including Alaskan Independence Party chairman John Wayne Howe and Eric Hafner, a Democrat with no apparent ties to Alaska who is serving time in a prison in New York, to be on the Nov. 5 ballot.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Republican House leaders, has been running an ad aimed at Trump supporters that says a vote for Peltola would be like canceling their Trump vote.

Peltola is seeking to prove that her special and regular election wins in 2022 following the death of longtime Republican Rep. Don Young weren’t a “fluke,” as Trump suggested during a recent tele-rally for Begich. While she has acknowledged her trailblazing status and the significance that holds to many of her supporters, she also has stressed that her job is to represent all Alaskans and emphasized her willingness to work across party lines. Most registered voters in Alaska aren’t affiliated with a party.

“When I was first running for office, people projected onto me that I would only be interested in working on Native issues or only be interested in working on issues that relate to rural Alaska,” Peltola said in an October speech to the Alaska Federation of Natives conference, a major annual gathering. “And I’m so honored to be able to message to people — Native people care about the health of a whole community, the health of the whole environment, the health of all of our society.

“We know we are not a singular group. We know everything is connected. Everyone is connected.”

During this year’s campaign, Peltola angered some Democrats by refusing to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president, though she also said she would not vote for Trump. She’s emphasized her role as part of Alaska’s congressional delegation in urging the Biden administration to approve the massive Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. The project, supported by many Alaska Native communities and groups in the region, also has broad backing from politicians and labor groups in the state. Willow’s approval is being challenged in court by environmental groups that say it flies in the face of President Joe Biden’s pledges to address climate concerns.

Both the Peltola and Begich campaigns have sought to rally supporters in a race that has drawn intense interest from outside groups. Results might not be known until Nov. 20, when ranked tabulations are set to be announced. Peltola, who was endorsed by the Alaska Federation of Natives, predicted the seat would be won by “dozens of votes.”

“Hey, if we can survive in Alaska for over 12,000 years, we know how to find the polling place, we know how to mail in a ballot. We know how to do this,” she told the group.

Officials have said they’re working to ensure everyone can vote in the Nov. 5 election, following instances in recent elections in which some polling locations in rural Native communities opened late or didn’t open at all.

Hurley, an independent from a southwest Alaska fishing community, said she thinks Peltola has done a good job working on issues rather than focusing on party politics. She said Peltola had gone “above and beyond what could be expected” after the losses she experienced.

Hurley decried as “shameful” criticism Peltola received for leaving Washington in July to return home to fish. The announcement by Peltola’s office that she’d be spending a week “putting up fish with family to fill freezers for the winter” also came as pressure grew for Biden to not seek reelection.

Hurley said that for Native people, subsistence isn’t just about fishing but about connecting with the land and one’s culture.

“I can’t respect her more for making sure she has the time — and taking care of her office at the same time — making sure that she has time to feed that connection or keep that connection,” she said.

A 50-year-old man who went deer hunting in southeast Alaska was mauled to death by a group of brown bears, officials confirmed Thursday. He had earlier been reported missing.

Tad Fujioka, 50, was reported missing on Tuesday night after leaving on a solo deer hunting trip on Baranof Island, which is part of the ABC islands along the Canadian border.

The next morning, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Sitka SAR launched land-based searches in remote wooded areas on the island, which is known for its wilderness and dense brown bear population.

“At approximately 11:30am, search teams located Fujioka’s remains,” Alaska State Troopers said in a statement. “Investigation revealed he was the likely victim of a fatal bear mauling.”

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter spotted three brown bears in the area. Police spokesman Tim DeSpain said the bears apparently mauled Fujioka and consumed a deer he had killed.

Fujioka’s body was recovered and his family has been notified.

Denise Shelton was one of hundreds of Anchorage-area voters who waited in the snow Thursday to cast their ballots.

Shelton, an East Anchorage resident, waited in line for 25 minutes as the snow came down outside the Division of Elections office on Gambell Street.

Shelton said she preferred voting early to sending in an absentee ballot by mail. She wanted to vote before Election Day to avoid the Tuesday post-work rush at the polling place.

The weather Thursday wasn’t great, but who knows — it could be worse on Tuesday, she said.

Shelton is one of 45,847 Alaskans who had cast their ballots as of Wednesday at one of a dozen early voting locations across the state — two each in Anchorage and Juneau, and one each in Eagle River, Fairbanks, Wasilla, Palmer, Nome, Soldotna, Kenai and Homer.

Early voting is on track to break state records that were set in 2020, said Division of Elections Regional Director Jeff Congdon, who oversees the Anchorage office. Typically, he said, early voting begins with a rush of excited voters but then tapers off as Election Day nears.

“This year, it hasn’t really tapered off,” said Congdon. “We’ve had many many days in a row where the lines are over an hour.”

Early and absentee voting increased in popularity across the country and in Alaska in 2020, when elections were held amid the COVID-19 pandemic-era restrictions. Now, the Alaska Republican Party — which has in the past discouraged voting methods other than same-day in-person ballots — is embracing early voting, with early ballots coming disproportionately from registered Republicans.

But early voting is not distributed equally across the state. Only voters in 10 communities — or those who happen to visit those communities ahead of Election Day — can vote early. In other communities, voters can cast absentee-in-person ballots that are counted similarly to ballots received by mail.

That means that in House Districts covering Homer, Kenai, Soldotna, Eagle River, Palmer and Juneau — early voting is soaring, with turnout already exceeding 10% in some House districts. But in communities that don’t have road access to an early voting location, like Ketchikan, Kodiak, Bethel, Utqiagvik and Kotzebue — the number of early voters is counted in single digits or dozens.

As of Wednesday, only five early votes came from Alaskans who reside in Bethel and the surrounding House district; and eight votes came from the House district covering the North Slope and Northwest Arctic. The only early voting location serving the area was in Nome — a place that is hundreds of miles and multiple plane rides away from voters in those communities.

Meanwhile, in three House districts covering most of the Kenai Peninsula, where there are early voting places in Homer, Kenai and Soldotna, 6,836 people had voted early.

‘Where else is something like that acceptable?’

Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher declined an interview request. She said that absentee-in-person locations make up for the lack of early voting locations in rural parts of the state.

According to the Division of Elections’ tally from Tuesday — a week before Election Day — 71,897 Alaskans had received or submitted absentee ballots. Of those, fewer than 2,600 had been submitted and tallied at in-person locations. A total of 27,330 absentee ballots had been received by the division through all methods, including mail.

“Early voting is limited to a few locations due to the requirements for access directly to the Voter Registration System. We are required to have them at the regional offices, and we have a few more in other locations. All other locations can have absentee in-person voting two weeks ahead, if they agree to hosting it in their locations,” Beecher said in an email.

Regional Division of Elections offices are located in Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Nome, Wasilla and Kenai. Beecher did not explain why some communities without such offices — including Homer, Palmer, Eagle River and Soldotna — had been given access to early voting, while other hub communities without access to the road system had not.

The discrepancy in early voting access could have far-reaching consequences for Alaska’s statewide election. In Alaska’s highly competitive congressional race, Democratic incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola is heavily favored by rural voters, while her Republican challenger Nick Begich is favored in conservative-leaning communities such as Wasilla, Palmer and Soldotna.

In-person absentee voting locations are meant to provide an alternative to early voting, but early data indicates they are underutilized in some rural communities. In House District 40, where a pivotal state House race could determine control of the chamber, only one Kotzebue resident’s absentee-in-person ballot had been received as of Tuesday. In House District 37, which covers Bristol Bay and the Aleutian Chain, only one voter — from King Salmon — had cast an absentee ballot in person. In House District 38, no in-person absentee ballots had been counted as of Tuesday.

According to the Division of Elections, absentee in-person voting locations are available in some rural villages — but not all. In House District 40, there are absentee-in-person locations in Utqiagvik, Kotzebue, Kivalina, Noorvik, Wainwright, Deering and Prudhoe Bay. That leaves Alaska residents in some villages with two options — cast a ballot by mail, despite a history of spotty service and delays, or wait for Election Day, which has its own history of unreliable staffing in some locations, including in the August primary, when some polling locations didn’t open on time.

Michelle Sparck, director of Get Out the Native Vote, a statewide nonprofit voter education organization, said Wednesday that her goal is to eventually have an in-person early voting opportunity in every rural district, including through early absentee voting. But the state offers poll workers only $100 in compensation for volunteering two weeks at the polling location, making it difficult for villages to find willing election workers, Sparck said.

Jeremiah Angusuc, the Nome-based Division of Elections regional director, said in a brief phone interview Wednesday that there are “no concerns for me at this time in my region” with regard to staffing polling places on Election Day.

Robyn Burke, an Utqiagvik Democrat running to represent House District 40, said Wednesday that she had cast an absentee-in-person ballot on Tuesday in Utqiagvik. According to records she saw at the polling place, only 14 other people had done so.

She said that on the first day of early in-person voting, which began Oct. 21, her sister had attempted to cast an absentee ballot in Utqiagvik, only to find that the borough building, where early voting was meant to take place, was closed.

“Where else is something like that acceptable outside of rural Alaska?” said Burke. “Even in the most rural communities anywhere else in the country, there would be an uproar.”

Burke is running against Republican-turned-independent incumbent Rep. Thomas Baker of Utqiagvik, and Democrat Saima Chase of Kotzebue. The outcome of the race could prove pivotal for control of the Alaska House next year. Burke said that if some polling places on the North Slope don’t open on Election Day — the result of the race could change.

Sparck said Wednesday that her organization had trained 13 election workers that will be ready to deploy on Election Day if needed in rural communities, in case poll workers don’t show up.

“We can’t apologize for trying to be strategic and trying to be prepared, even if it steps on some protocol,” said Sparck.

But a last-minute staffing shortage could be hard to fill, said Burke. There is only one regularly scheduled flight from Anchorage to Utqiagvik, and it arrives after the regularly scheduled flights from Utqiagvik to outlying villages depart.

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