Since the implementation of mail-in elections in Anchorage, voter turnout has steadily declined.
In the most recent April 1 municipal election, turnout dropped once again, with just 23,209 ballots cast — representing only 25.33% of registered voters.
The Anchorage Assembly adopted the mail-in and drop-box voting system in 2017 without putting the decision to a public vote. That year, turnout was 24%, with approximately 49,000 ballots cast out of an estimated 204,167 registered voters. The first mail-in election was held in 2018.
Here’s what turnout has looked like since the shift to mail-in voting in Alaska’s largest city:
Some spikes in voter turnout can be attributed to specific elections. In 2018, the race between mayoral candidates Ethan Berkowitz and Amy Demboski drew higher participation. In 2021, public frustration with the Berkowitz Administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic — as well as the Anchorage Assembly’s response — also drove more voters to the polls.
However, this year’s turnout barely surpassed levels seen before mail-in voting was adopted, raising further questions about the effectiveness of the system.
When the Assembly approved the mail-in voting model, it claimed the new approach would increase voter participation. So far, that promise has not been fulfilled in any remarkable way.
In addition to lower-than-expected turnout, the mail-in voting system has brought significantly higher costs for Anchorage taxpayers. The first vote-by-mail election in 2018 cost roughly $1 million — more than double the cost of traditional polling place elections. By comparison, the 2015 and 2016 mayoral elections cost about $451,000 each, while the 2017 election cost around $614,000.
The municipality also made a one-time investment of $1.2 million for equipment and infrastructure, including a high-tech mail sorter and upgrades to a new election headquarters. Ongoing expenses, such as printing, postage, and facility rental, continue to add to the overall cost.
The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to certify the results of the April 1 regular election at its meeting on Tuesday, April 22, beginning at 5 pm in the Assembly Chambers at the Loussac Library.
The scam worked perfectly.
A Democrats’ wet dream is to have low voter participation. It’s so much easier for them to cheat when the other side doesn’t show up to the voting booth.
I’ve voted in every election, even when in southeast Asia. It seems that the Anchorage residents don’t care. Sad.
Why is that, do you think? Perhaps it is because our input has no effect or bearing, at all, on Anchorage events; or, it could be that nothing changes, irregardless of which political party is in power; even better yet, and especially considering today, perhaps it is due to ranked choice voting, which almost guarantees a leftists-focused outcome.
Instead of blaming the voters, perhaps we should take a look at the systemic issues first.
People have given up on Anchorage and are moving out of the area due to the homeless city created by the assembly
Mail in did exactly what they wanted it to. That plus April elections ensures unions members vote but not the general public!
Not only that but usually takes much longer to get results!
We know only what we’re told about voter turnout by unelected officials who count votes for the Assembly candidates for whom they work.
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We know ballot chain of custody is lost from the moment voters receive mail-in ballots, which means ballots can get lost, stolen, or changed anywhere on their way to being counted, which affects voter turnout stats.
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We know election observers have no idea what they’re observing which means computerized vote count can shift right in front of them, affect voter turnout stats, and they’d never know it.
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We know Alaska election officials pay to outsource voter-roll accuracy to leftist-controlled ERIC, but apparently they don’t know what ERIC does with voters’ registration data or cross-check ERIC for accuracy, which could affect voter turnout percentages without anyone knowing why.
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We know a lot of states pulled out of ERIC because they weren’t allowed to know everything ERIC did with their peoples’ sensitive voter-registration data..
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We know power and money, like what School Board members used to steer million-dollar contracts to union-only shops, could be a persuasive motivation to corrupt elections because folks who aren’t on board with such things obviously can’t be allowed anywhere near the shady benefits (kickbacks?) from such things.
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Remember the Great Alaska LeDoux Vote Experiment? We still don’t how many illegal aliens, dead folks, or clearly unqualified voters infest voter rolls, whose “votes”, if needed, can steer elections in the desired direction, whose presence may inflate voter rolls enough to make it look like a smaller percentage of qualified people actually voted.
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We don’t know how many ballots were tossed or lost by the election division’s amateur handwriting “experts” who can’t testify in court as handwriting experts, but can “curate” or toss votes opposing the Assembly candidates for whom they work.
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We don’t know what election officials told former mayor Bronson when he asked who stuck the thumb drive in the vote-counting gear while it was counting votes and why the person did it.
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What reason(s) do we have to trust voter turnout numbers, or election results if: (a) they can’t be verified accurately or independently, (b) the mail-in ballot process is flawed from the beginning, and (c) we have no reason to trust officials who work so hard to mislead and dictate to us about nearly everything else?
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Maybe the stats mean voters finally accept what looks like Stage IV electoral corruption and don’t care anymore because, to them, it seems incurable?
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How is it not incurable if two things which can cure it are themselves FUBAR’d?
Counterfeit mail-in ballots printed in Shanghai paid for by soros
What could ever go wrong? 😉
I think more people vote than what we see represented. With in-person voting, we saw a major turn-out of voters, enough to get Nick Begich and Donald Trump in office. There is no reason to think that the same voters just don’t vote if it is mail-in only. It doesn’t add up. It’s not who votes, it’s who counts the votes, Every time we have mail-in only, only Democrats win.
AK Democrats are pushing SB 64 which is mail in voting for the whole state! If this happens the Democrats will win every election and we will become a one party state like WA, CA and OR. Please contact your Representative!
The slackers that refuse to participate in the vote are probably the same people who will video a person being attacked but won’t do anything to help them. Pathetic. Just watch losers.