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Takeaways from AP's reporting on challenges to voting in Alaska Native villages

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Takeaways from AP's reporting on challenges to voting in Alaska Native villages


KAKTOVIK, Alaska — The right to vote is considered sacrosanct in the U.S., but it isn’t always so in the tiny, remote Native villages across Alaska.

In these far-flung locations — well off any connected road systems, often accessible only by boats or small planes — challenges to voting abound. Mail and phone service can be unreliable, with severe storms or worker illness causing delays. Sometimes the polls simply don’t open if there’s no one trained to serve as an election worker, or if they don’t show up after being hired or quit before an election.

The result? Hundreds of people can be disenfranchised. That would shock politicians, voters and activists in any swing state, but it’s garnered relatively little attention outside the 49th state.

The Associated Press sent journalists in early October to one village above the Arctic Circle where the precinct failed to open for the August primary this year — Kaktovik, on an island just off the northern coast of Alaska — to take a closer look at the hurdles facing Alaska Native voters. Here are some takeaways from the AP’s reporting.

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A lack of poll workers

Recruitment and retention of poll workers has been an ongoing problem statewide for the Alaska Division of Elections, but it can be especially challenging in Native villages, where the cost of goods is high and populations are small.

George Kaleak, a whaling captain and community leader in Kaktovik, blames insufficient pay as well as timing: The August primary arrives when many people are out hunting and fishing, on vacation or preparing for the upcoming whaling season.

Poll workers in Alaska can make $20 an hour, with precinct chairs, who oversee polling sites they’re assigned to, earning slightly more. Workers must commit to working a 16-hour day or to working a split shift, and they must attend a four- to five-hour paid training session.

A sign seeking election help is displayed on the bulletin board in the community building in Kaktovik, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. Credit: AP/Mark Thiessen

Among the ways the state has tried to boost interest is a “youth at the booth” program, which seeks to involve older teenagers in working elections.

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In Kaktovik, recent high school graduate Edwin Solomon has been considering it. He didn’t vote in the primary and looks at voting in the general election as his “first step into adulthood.”

A recurring problem

Polls not opening has been a recurring problem in rural Alaska. During the August primary this year, precincts in Wales and Kaktovik failed to open. They opened late in several other villages. In Anaktuvuk Pass, the polling place didn’t open until about 30 minutes before closing time; just seven of 258 registered voters there cast ballots in person.

In the 2022 primary, Tununak and Atmautluak didn’t open when workers failed to show up. Two others — Holy Cross and Venetie — didn’t have enough poll workers, but voters were able to cast absentee ballots in person.

A villager walks through the snow in Kaktovik, Alaska, Monday,...

A villager walks through the snow in Kaktovik, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. Credit: AP/Lindsey Wasson

In that year’s general election, polls in the villages of Teller and Nuiqsut didn’t open until about 3:30 p.m.

Alaska allows absentee voting, but that can present its own challenges given the sometimes questionable reliability of mail delivery in rural Alaska.

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The U.S. Justice Department, which enforces federal laws that protect the right to vote, declined to comment about polling places failing to open in rural Alaska. But for years, pursuant to a court order, it has monitored elections in the state to ensure polling places provide language assistance to Alaska Native voters.

What’s at stake?

Alaska’s lone representative in the U.S. House is Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola — the first Alaska Native elected to Congress. She’s facing Republican Nick Begich in a tight race that will help determine which party controls the House.

Peltola is popular among Alaska Native voters and was endorsed this month by the Alaska Federation of Natives, the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska. She has suggested that the race with Begich could be decided by “dozens of votes,” making the possible implications of any voter disenfranchisement significant.

Is it being addressed?

State, regional and local officials all say they are trying to ensure everyone can vote in the Nov. 5 election. In a written statement, Carol Beecher, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, called her agency “highly invested in ensuring that all precincts have workers and that sites open on time.” She acknowledged it can be difficult to find temporary workers to help run elections in remote villages.

Michelle Sparck, with the nonprofit Get Out The Native Vote, said her agency has partnered with another organization and has found 11 volunteers who have been trained to work elections and are willing to fly to villages, if needed, next week. One is already committed to Craig, a community of about 1,000 people — about 17% Native — on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska.

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The North Slope Borough — akin to a county government in other parts of the U.S. — said it also is prepared to send staffers to Kaktovik or other villages that might need help opening precincts if the state fails to hire anyone. The borough, which includes Kaktovik, covers a vast swath of tundra nearly the size of Oregon.



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Alaska

Early voting is surging, but not in rural Alaska

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Early voting is surging, but not in rural Alaska


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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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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A hunter in Alaska is found dead after being mauled by a bear

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A hunter in Alaska is found dead after being mauled by a bear


Toby, an orphaned four-year-old Alaskan coastal brown bear, stands and looks out over the compound at the Fortress of the Bear Center in Sitka, Alaska, on Aug. 1, 2013.

Charles Rex Arbogast/AP


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Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

A man from Sitka, Alaska, was found dead Wednesday after he was apparently attacked by a brown bear during a deer hunting trip, according to officials.

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Tad Fujioka, a 50-year-old resident of Sitka, had been reported overdue from the deer hunting trip on Tuesday, the Alaska Department of Public Safety said in a statement. Fujioka’s remains were found at 11:30 a.m. local time Wednesday by search teams and an investigation shows “he was the likely victim of a fatal bear mauling,” the agency said.

Tim DeSpain, an information officer with the department, said Fujioka had killed a deer before being attacked by the brown bear.

“The area is remote and there are a lot of bears,” DeSpain told NPR.

Troopers and members of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game searched for bears “until daylight constraints affected the search, and did not locate the bears,” DeSpain said. “The bears consumed the deer and left the immediate area which is remote and difficult to access.”

Members of Fujioka’s family have been notified, the public safety department said.

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Sitka is located in southeastern Alaska and is a community on Baranof Island. The community is nearly 100 miles south of Juneau, the state’s capital.

There are 30,000 brown bears estimated to be in Alaska, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. They normally live along Alaska’s southern coast and can weigh up to 1,500 pounds.



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Halloween brings stormy weather to Alaska

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Halloween brings stormy weather to Alaska


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A sunny break on Wednesday over Southcentral Alaska gave residents a chance to take a breather after nearly a foot of snow Monday to Tuesday.

But don’t get too relaxed, because Halloween in Southcentral is calling for snow and rain.

As for overnight, there is a chance of snow and temperatures in the 20s. That will mean slick roads, and with snow expected to fall Thursday morning, it could cover up those slippery areas of roads and highways. Take it slow in the snow!

The storm set to hit Southcentral is already pushing snow, freezing rain and gusty winds over Southwest Alaska. The storm is centered over the Bering Sea.

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No advisories or warnings going into Wednesday night, but this next storm is likely to move in very challenging weather conditions all over again. Starting early Thursday, snow is likely to be falling over the Kenai Peninsula.

The snow will move north to Anchorage, with 2 to 3 inches possible, and then mix with rain by afternoon, and in another possibility, if temperatures remain too warm, rain could be substantial, about 7/10 of an inch.

Southeast Alaska will get a break Thursday and Friday too. Halloween should remain mostly dry, with just a few showers. Another storm front reaches the region by the weekend.

The hot spot for Alaska on Wednesday was Sitka at 55 degrees and the cold spot was Anaktuvuk Pass with a temperature of 15 degrees below zero.

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