By BRIAN HOVE
We loved Election Day.
After casting our ballots, my wife and I always made sure our “I Voted” stickers were on full display as we left the polling station. This was a moment brimming with civic pride, a time we celebrated being Alaskan and American.
That was then. This is now. Now we are early voters. Still filled with the same pride and patriotism, but always early.
Why?
Simply put, races are no longer won on Tuesday. In fact, they are often decided well before election day – by early voters. Time and again we see conservative candidates build healthy leads on election night only to have hopes dashed as the early-voter ballots are counted.
The latest example is the Fairbanks North Star Borough election held earlier this month.
The Borough ballot had six seats in play. Remarkably, final vote counts in five of the six races were split almost dead even 50/50 between two candidates – one liberal, the other conservative. Regrettably, conservatives were on the losing end of three of the five races.
A closer look at all three losses reveals the conservative held a sizeable lead on election night, but ultimately fell short as a result of insufficient votes garnered pre-election. In other words, the deficit accumulated via early-voting was too large to overcome on election day.
Of course, professional rabblerousers would have us believe nefarious activity is the root cause of such adverse outcomes. Their objective is to manufacture doubt and sow distrust in our election systems thereby discouraging Republicans from voting. Let’s not be distracted.
As noted, final margins were extraordinarily close. Five of the six seats were very winnable. But conservatives tend to be traditionalists – we vote on election day. Consequently, we lost three of five races. Electoral success will require a change in our approach. We need to vote early.
So, why is early-voting effective in winning elections? Why is it strategically necessary?
Successful campaigns are obviously a function of voter turnout. For a candidate to win, supporters need to vote. Just commonsense, of course. But life is full of diversions. Sometimes we need to be reminded to cast our ballot. This is where GOTV comes into play.
Get-Out-The-Vote programs are critical to campaign success. They are also spendy. But since early-voters no longer present a drain on scarce campaign resources (time and money), all efforts can be fully concentrated on turning out those supporters who have not yet voted.
In a nutshell, meaningful GOTV efforts cannot be performed at the last minute – such as on election day. The more folks who vote early, the fewer ballots the campaign has to chase at relatively high cost. Monetary capital is critical. But volunteer time is of the essence.
So, the best way to help conservative candidates win is to scratch yourself off the campaign’s GOTV list as soon as possible by voting as soon as possible. Let the campaign move on to others who have not yet voted. Give campaign volunteers the precious gift of time. Vote now.
In our home, absentee ballots for the November election have already been cast. We still feel pride in doing our part. But we also enjoy a calm sense of relief in knowing our part is done.
Make a pledge to vote early. Mark yourself off the GOTV list. Ask your family, friends and neighbors to do the same. This is how contemporary elections are won.
Whether we call it “Bank Your Vote” or “Swamp The Vote” or whatever, let’s just call it done!
Two Common Ways to Vote Early:
- Go to your local Division of Elections early-voting location. There are dozens throughout Alaska. DOE will launch in-person early-voting beginning Monday October 21st. Find your nearest location at: https://www.elections.alaska.gov/avo/
- Apply online for an absentee ballot to be mailed to your home. Your absentee ballot can be requested from the Division of Elections at: https://www.elections.alaska.gov/absentee-and-early-voting/
A Few Words About Absentee Ballots:
An absentee ballot is voting material requested by the voter. In other words, these ballots are not shotgunned out to everybody. They only get sent to those who ask for them.
Also, you do not have to be literally absent on election day to vote “absentee”. No excuse is required to use this ballot. So, the term “absentee” may be somewhat of a misnomer.
Most importantly, once you receive your absentee ballot from the Division of Elections, please complete the voting process as instructed and send the ballot back immediately. The DOE includes an envelope for this purpose. A couple first-class stamps will assure it gets to DOE.
Thank you for voting early. Conservative candidates up and down the ticket will appreciate it!
Brian Hove is a UAF business graduate and a 44-year resident of Alaska. Much of his working life was spent in the banking industry. He also staffed a state senator back in the day. He has been a member of the Alaska Republican Party since 1980 serving in multiple roles over many years. He currently volunteers as the party’s National Committeeman. Opinions expressed in this forum are his own.
Not sure about all the comment, however: having worked on the election in 2020, I know that when we ran out of ballots, we were instructed to make copies of ballots to hand out which we did. The one question that I had was if each ballot has it’s own special mark, how did the machines they use to count the ballots handle those marked ballots? I was told not to worry by the group handling the ballots from Prudhoe Bay. A lot of those ballots were from voters in Fairbanks?
Wow. Each ballot was numbered when I worked elections several years earlier. When we ran out of ballots one election, people simply couldn’t vote.
Probably rigged by Scott Kendall and his in-laws, the Hopkins tribe.
It doesn’t matter early or late votes still count.
We need to get the lazy non voter to get off the couch and vote.
This makes no sense.
A vote is a vote.
The race is won by the person who ends up with the most votes.
Whether those votes were cast early or on election day, does not effect the end count.
The premise of this article seems to imply that an early vote counts for more than an election day vote.
And anyone who believes that the Left doesn’t cheat, is living in a world that no longer exists, a fantasy world.
Voting early just gives the Left time to calculate how many fake votes they need to come up with to beat the other side.
Voting should be paper ballots only, and election day only, unless you are a military member stationed outside our borders.
Well said. This is almost word for word of what I was thinking as I read this piece.
With the power-crazed Hopkins Family in charge of their Fairbanks Democrat turnout, we must be extra vigilant on November 5. Vote early, and vote straight ticket Republican. Hopkins now has his son in the mayor’s seat and wacko brother in law on the Assembly. His son in law, Scott Kendall, is the dirt bag, political trickster of Alaska. And they will work hard to get their fellow communists into the state House and Senate seats to support their Family. Get out and vote early.
Everybody in Fairbanks knows who the cheaters are.
That family sure is obsessed by political power.
Don’t believe it. Vote early if you prefer, but it isn’t going to count more than a vote on election day.
I vote on Election Day! I DO NOT want my ballot lying around in some out of the way place somewhere!
Do as they preach in Chicago: Vote early and vote often.
Whole new flavor of stupid…
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Short version seems to be: elections are decided before election day, which means only early votes are counted, votes cast after some mysterious date aren’t, the so-called Republican Party, so-o-o unlike the Democrat Party, doesn’t have time and money to waste on voters who vote on election-day,
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… plus anyone challenging the virginal purity of Alaska’s election system is:
(a) a professional rabblerouser who’d have innocent voters believing nefarious activity, –like only early votes being counted–, can actually cause such adverse outcomes, and
(b) a professional scoundrel who’d manufacture doubt and sow distrust in our perfectly transparent, fair, and honest election systems thereby discouraging –only– Republicans from voting.
.
If this one’s an example of how the rest and best of Alaska’s GOP Inc. thinks, Republicans are in trouble, no?
As I understand it..which may be ??. Early voting is for those who can get out to vote early, it does lesson then heavier load of voting and people at the poles on Election day. As I understand it, it does allow more time for the election results to be counted.. Instead of waiting 5++ days for the votes, from election day only to be counted, it would take lesser days to get a total count. Also Since I do not own a car and drive; THERE ARE OTHERS WHO DEPENDS UP IT TOO TO GET AROUND., People Mover and Anchor Rides provides free travel on Election day ONLY. For those who depend upon public transportation, that allows us TO GET OUT AND VOTE!!.and let our vote count..For those who thinks public transportation is only for DEMOCRATS… YOU’RE DEAD WRONG!!.
So. Until recently, I have always chosen to vote upon election day itself, within the time-honored belief that the result of said vote would be calibrated by the very next day as to whether my vote went unto the winner or the loser of given vote.
Anymore? Not so much.
So, within that regard, I now choose to vote as early as possible, so as to rank mine own vote as official, especially within the RCV fiasco.
Today, the first day of early voting, I intended to vote early at 2525 Gambell St., the location of the general State voting location as soon as I left work, which is about 1400, and at which time I thought would be before many would be off work, or picking their kids up from school, so it should have been fairly accessible.
Well, it was NOT! Gambell Street was lined with vehicles completely packed from Fireweed to Northern Lights Blvd upon BOTH sides of the street, and the line of voters going around the building from the front, Western entrance, around to the Northern side of the building, and unto the Eastern side of the building!
It was a wonderous sight to behold, that so many were standing in line to vote! I had never witnessed that before, even before the ridiculous the RCV mandate.
Looking at the line as I drove by, and yes, drove by, because I can wait to vote early rather than stand within a line for a couple of hours within a day that is not election day, I was actually proud that so many were doing what I would not within order to cast their vote, regardless of what that vote was.
Is it possible that we shall attain a level of 30% or above within local participation of our elections, or even above 40% How freaking special would that be?
All of that said, within mine own mind, regardless of what I now do, every election should be held within a singular day, within a singular vote, by a singular individual, and the result should be known by the following day, by hand count, just as it has been for many, many years. You know, before the supposed ‘technology’…
Randy, I have heard that the lines were long in other places also. I pray that all of the votes count as the voter casted them! I hope that this is a sign of a huge turnout!
Ginny, I found out that the waiting time for each location within town was over an hour, and that the wait time within the Mat-Su valley was similar, or even longer than that!
Today, October 22, 2024, at about the same time frame, I found the line not so long, but still around the corner of the building, and so drove past once again, once again impressed within the number of individuals within the line, employing their civic duty, no matter their voting direction, as within their civic duty, par none.
Let us bring this unto a voting percentage of 50 percentage points plus, something that has not happened within nearly a century, to establish a real choice, not by 1 or 2 percentage points, but by 10 or better percentage points.
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