Alaska Democrats will have a dozen on their caucus ballot

OR IS IT ELEVEN? ONE CANDIDATE HAS DROPPED

Alaska Democrats taking part in their party’s privately run primary on April 4 will have 12 candidates to choose from for their presidential nominee:

• Michael Bennet, age 55, senator
• Joe Biden, age 77, former Vice President
• Michael Bloomberg, age 77, former New York mayor
• Peter Buttigieg, age 38, mayor
• John Delaney, age 56, former representative
• Tulsi Gabbard, age 38, representative
• Amy Klobuchar, age 59, senator
• Deval Patrick, age 63, former governor
• Bernie Sanders, age 78, senator
• Tom Steyer, age 62, businessman
• Elizabeth Warren, age 70, senator
• Andrew Yang, age 45, businessman

Jan. 24 was the application deadline for presidential candidates to apply to the Alaska Democratic Party for inclusion on their ballot.

John Delaney has announced he is dropping out of the race, but he and the other candidates have already paid $2,500 each to the Alaska Democratic Party to take part in the party’s first-ever private primary — a method of caucusing by ballot, rather than by standing around a gymnasium.

If the ballot hasn’t been sent to the printer, Delaney’s name will likely be dropped. Others will probably drop before the Democrats hold their primary, leaving some ghost candidates still on the ballot.

The Democrats’ ballot will include a ranked choice voting. Participants will be able to choose and rank up to five candidates, in the order they prefer. How they will handle ghost candidates is still an unknown.

They’ll also be executing an ambitious mail-in ballot program at a time when they don’t have a digital director to manage mailing lists and data files. The Democrats’ data director parted ways with the party on Jan. 10, and the FBI has been called in to investigate.

[Read: FBI interviews Alaska Democratic Party]

The Democrats are in the middle of their State Central Committee meeting, a quarterly event. This week, it’s in Juneau at the Baranof Hotel and surrounding watering holes, where Democrat activists can also rub shoulders with their legislators.

Then, Democrats must turn their focus to training volunteers to run their primary in every one of the 40 House districts.

On Feb. 13, Districts 29 and 30 Democrats will be treated to an informational meeting at Phormation Chiropractic Office on Kenai Spur Hwy. The meeting starts at 5:30 pm, one of many to take place around the state this month.

On Feb. 19, the party will mail to every registered Democrat some information explaining the ways in which a voter may cast a ballot in the 2020 party-run process, which is a radical change from its past practices. All Democrats registered with the Division of Elections as of Feb. 1 will receive the information.

Absentee ballots can be requested on the state party website beginning Feb. 19, and must be postmarked by Tuesday, March 24.

In-person voting will take place on April 4 in these communities, and possibly others: Anchorage Fairbanks/North Star Borough, Juneau, Mat-Su Borough, Kenai Peninsula, Dillingham, Bethel, Nome, and Kotzebue.

The party has settled on Anchorage Democrat Wigi Tozzi as its presidential primary director. Tozzi was one of the leaders of a recall effort in 2013 to oust Lindsey Holmes, a former representative for House District 19 who switched from Democrat to Republican while in office. That recall effort fizzled after Holmes declined to run for reelection.