The Division of Elections reports over 6,000 Alaskans voted on Thursday, the fourth day of early voting, for a total of over 26,200 early voters between Monday and Thursday. Voters reported standing in line for more than an hour in Anchorage.
Also, 20,596 absentee ballots have been mailed back and received by the Division through Oct. 25.
Combined early and absentee votes are nearly 47,000 as of Thursday.
Alaska’s Republican-registered voters are still crushing it, making up nearly 37% of all early in-person voters so far, while Democrat-registered voters are at 14%.
In the absentee ballots returned and received, Republicans have outperformed as well at 30%; Democrats are at 23% of all ballots returned. Over 10% of Alaska voters have requested an absentee ballot.
Alaska has just 75,066 registered Democrats and 146,000 registered Republicans. The rest of the voters are either with minor parties or, more commonly, not with any party. With Democrats representing 12% of the voter roll, they are doing well with their absentee ballot returns. Republicans represent 24% of the overall voter roll, so are slightly outperforming their numbers.
Can you vote on Sunday?
Although many smaller early voting locations are closed on Sunday, regional offices are open Oct. 27 and Nov. 3 from noon – 4 p.m.:
Anchorage, 2525 Gambell St.
Fairbanks, 675 7th Avenue, Suite A2.
Juneau, 9109 Mendenhall Mall Rd Ste 3.
Kenai on Sunday, 11312 Kenai Spur Rd. Ste. 48.
Nome, 214 Front Street, Suite 130.
Wasilla, 1700 E Bogard Rd Ste B102.
Keep it up Conservatives! Don’t let good numbers make you complacent. Every vote counts. Vote early, No on 1, Yes on 2, and for Nick. Don’t let the outside influences for the ballot measures win!
No on 1. Keep government out of your business. It is inflationary.
Yes yes yes on 2. Let’s have honest elections.
When I was in line Thursday, one gentleman said it was his 3rd time there that day and the line had not changed. We waited at least an hour and a half to vote. Others said it had been that way every day all week.
Some people left at the sight of the line length and I can only hope they’ll return to vote later. It was good to see so many people determined to vote and the conversations while waiting were pleasant.
I voted today, Sunday, October27, 2024.
I got there early enough, or so I thought, but still, I was the first person in line OUTSIDE the doors, even though I was thirty minutes early. Needless to say, I was most impressed within not only the turnout of the voting public, but the civility and kindness within the line.
Within fact, those located within the building made a space for me to come in as I was not wearing a coat, thinking I must be cold, of which I was not, but their consideration was most appreciated, and we all of us engaged within basic conversation, none of which involved politics, but living the life within Alaska, and our common experiences therein.
Not ONE of us identified how our vote would be cast, as we all of us respected that choice unto each other’s decision. Said decision never came up.
What I WILL say, is that the majority of those that I witnessed standing within the line had, like me, grey hair, and were willingly standing within said line for 40 minutes or more, to cast their vote, even without chairs, of which I would gladly have offered if available, although as I was leaving, I overheard a voter employee announce that chairs were available to those who needed them, so good for them.
There was NO dyed hair, nor young individuals within the line that I witnessed, within the exception of a young girl and a young boy within the towing of their individual mothers, and even they were comfortable, as they were not singled out or intimidated by anyone else within the line. They were left alone. They were left alone to observe the reality of the voting process within a calm, adult manner.
Upon mine own distribution unto the voting gathering machine, I was given a hiccup, within that the scanner observed a duplicate vote so as to garner an alert within the voting system.
I identified that I had voted straight across the board for my choices and was informed that only my first choice would count, unto which I affirmed that is exactly what I wanted, and pressed the button to cast my vote.
As I left, I observed that the line to vote had grown around the building once again, and wished the waiting well, so as to be able to cast their votes before the end of the time of 1600 for this day.
I am glad that you followed up on the machine reaction to you filling in the bubbles all the way across for one candidate. Now, people can know that you can do this and what the machine will do when it tries to read it.
I waited roughly 45 minutes and noticed the bottleneck was with the poll workers. Way too much jibber jabber between the poll workers and voters checking-in….it should only take 1 minute or less to verify your eligibility and get you a ballot.
If you can, report it to the Division of Elections or get ahold of the precinct chair so that they can tell the people to concentrate more on their jobs and less on talking.
I am of two minds within this conundrum….
One, individual ballot receivers have individual methods, and speed, as to processing ballot givers, within their interactions within each ballot giver. Some are faster than others, to be sure. That said, these volunteers are indeed individuals, not robots, and so each one reacts and responds unto each individual voter differently.
These volunteers are processing hundreds, if not thousands of in-person contacts each and every day, so what their individual speed and preferences are to allow them the ability to competently and accurately perform their job, more the power unto them.
Within that concept, I shall give these volunteers, and they are indeed volunteers, the highest marks possible.
Two, it is many times that the voter, not the voting receiver, is the issue, as they do not have the proper documentation, the proper identification, nor the proper address, so as to make the voting process a smoother process.
The bottom line for me, is that what I personally witnessed, was the very embodiment of personalized servitude, unto which each individual voter was greeted as an individual rather than a number, and for that, a few extra seconds within said encounter is more than worth it for each individual, whether said individual is before the volunteer, or behind the one before the volunteer.
So approximately 58k asked for mail in ballots and 20 k returned leaving or about 35 percent. That is good news. Harder to manipulate with only 38K left to do that with.
Our voter rolls are a bloated mess. As is the mail in ballot security process with no signature verification.
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