Steps taken to ensure rural Alaska voting goes smoother than primary, state election leaders say

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska Division of Elections leaders said steps have been taken to ensure polling locations are open and staffed on Tuesday after rural voters — primarily with Alaska Native populations — dealt with primary election polling locations not being opened and late absentee ballot arrivals.

“We are optimistic that all precincts will be open and ready to go. We are sending several people to Egegik and may have to send some to Shungnak. Otherwise, so far we have all R4 precincts covered,” division Director Carol Beecher said.

Beecher specifically referred to Region 4, which includes Northern, Western and Southwest Alaska, Aleutian Chain, Tyonek, Port Graham, and Nanwalek.

The Divisions of Elections update follows concerns that Rep. Mary Peltola raised at a primary watch party back in August that some Alaska communities did not have open polling stations.

The next day, Beecher responded by saying staffing issued at two locations — Wales and Kaktovik — meant polls had not opened. Anaktuvuk Pass was also not open for most of the day.

The mayor of Anaktuvuk Pass — with assistance from the division — was able to provide ballots and a register, so the polling place was open for about 45 minutes.

However, problems persisted before the primary election, with Beecher confirming 20 rural communities received absentee ballots after early voting started Aug. 5.

Beecher said the late ballots resulted from a logistics issue associated with absentee voter offices, or AVOs.

“That window of time between getting the ballots printed and getting them sent is tight for the AVOs,” Beecher said. “It’s particularly tight in our rural areas like Nome. And so because of that, there was a challenge with the mail, et cetera, getting them to those locations on time.

“Most of them had them on time, but there were a few that didn’t get them for the Monday opening,” Beecher said back in August.

Reaching out to rural communities on Monday, Bethel and Dillingham election staff told Alaska’s News Source they were now experiencing few issues leading up to the general election.

Dillingham city staff said they had seen record-level early voting in anticipation of a winter storm on Election Day.

Get Out The Native Vote Director Michelle Sparck said her group is working hard to make sure that everything works smoothly on election day, but anticipates there could still be issues.

“It could be Mother Nature. Again, it could be human error — we don’t know yet. Right now, we’re trying to make sure that Nuiqsut has their ballots because we were told that only one election bag made it there as far as Saturday, so I’m hoping that it came in at least by [Monday],” Sparck said. “The division can’t give us a list of election workers signed up in every precinct because they are temporary state workers, so we can’t crosscheck it and say, you know, we know that they’re there and we know that they’re prepared, and we can’t harass election workers.

“Obviously, that’s not our intent either, but we just want to make sure that there’s a system in place eventually where we all have a really good comfort level with the all-volunteer election workforce, and that our post offices are operational, and that the air carriers can travel on days like this.”

Additionally, the Department of Justice will be monitoring compliance with federal voting rights laws in five Alaskan boroughs and census areas during Tuesday’s election.

Out of a total of 86 jurisdictions in 27 states nationwide, the Alaska jurisdictions to be monitored — from north to south — include the North Slope Borough, the Northwest Arctic Borough, the Kusilvak Census Area, the Bethel Census Area, and the Dillingham Census Area.

The effort is part of the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s responsibility to ensure compliance with all federal statutes that protect the right to vote as well as federal statutes prohibiting discriminatory interference with that right.

Sparck said she is glad to see that kind of attention.

“Because section five of the Voting Rights Act is so important and integral to us having language accessibility on election day, and they do publish pamphlets — the election guides — with the languages that are covered under the Act … but there are issues,“ Sparck said. ”Not every poll worker is bilingual out in the villages. We have been trying to encourage more bilingual workers to apply to be outreach agents for the Division of Elections.”

In the end, Sparck said she is hoping for a high turnout, but she remains worried historical voting issues have created apathy in the rural, Native communities.

“People start to think, ‘What does it matter? Why should I waste my time? Why should I go stand in line for two hours if it‘s not even going to mean anything?’“ Sparck said. ”We’ve gotta realize our power.”

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