Alaska

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

Published

1 year ago

October 29, 2024

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Over $150K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

Published

2 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Over 0K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.

A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.

As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.

In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.

Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.

Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

14 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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Alaska

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

iStock / Getty Images

This is a tax tutorial for gubernatorial candidates, for legislators who will report to work next year and for the Alaska public.

Think of it as homework, with more than eight months to complete the assignment that is not due until the November election. The homework is intended to inform, not settle the debate over a state sales tax or state income tax — or neither, which is the preferred option for many Alaskans.

But for those Alaskans willing to consider a tax as a personal responsibility to help fund schools, roads, public safety, child care, state troopers, prisons, foster care and everything else necessary for healthy and productive lives, someday they will need to decide on a state income tax or a state sales tax after they accept the checkbook reality that oil and Permanent Fund earnings are not enough.

This homework assignment is intended to get people thinking with facts, not emotions. Electing the right candidates will be the first test.

Alaskans have until the next election because nothing will change this year. It will take a new political alignment led by a reality-based governor to organize support in the Legislature and among the public.

But next year, maybe, with the right elected leadership, Alaskans can debate a state sales tax or personal income tax. Plus, of course, corporate taxes and oil production taxes, but those are for another school day.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of a state sales tax is that visitors would pay it. Yes, they would, but not as much as many Alaskans think.

Air travel is exempt from sales taxes. So are cruise ship tickets. That’s federal law, which means much of what tourists spend on their Alaska vacation is beyond the reach of a state sales tax.

Cutting further into potential revenues, state and federal law exempts flightseeing tours from sales tax, which is a particularly costly exemption when you think about how much visitors spend on airplane and helicopter tours.

That leaves sales tax supporters collecting from tourists on T-shirts, gifts for grandchildren, artwork, postcards, hotels, Airbnb, car rentals and restaurant meals. Still a substantial take for taxes, but far short of total tourism spending.

An argument against a state sales tax is that more than 100 cities and boroughs already depend on local sales taxes to pay for schools and other public services. Try to imagine what a state tax piled on top of a local tax would do to kill shopping in Homer, already at 7.85%, or Kodiak, Wrangell and Cordova, all at 7%, and all the other municipalities.

Supporters of an income tax say it would share the responsibility burden with nonresidents who earn income in Alaska and then return home to spend their money.

Almost one in four workers in Alaska in 2024 were nonresidents, as reported by the state Department of Labor in January. That doesn’t include federal employees, active-duty military or self-employed people.

Nonresidents earned roughly $3.8 billion, or about 17% of every dollar covered in the report.

However, many of those nonresident workers are lower-wage and seasonal, employed in the seafood processing and tourism industries, unlikely to pay much in income taxes. But a tax could be structured so that they pay something, which is fair.

Meanwhile, higher-wage workers in oil and gas, mining, construction and airlines (freight and passenger service) would pay taxes on their income earned in Alaska, which also is fair.

It comes down to what would direct more of the tax burden to nonresidents: a tax on income or on visitor spending. Wages or wasabi-crusted salmon dinners.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.

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