About 28,000 early voting and absentee ballots have been cast so far in the Nov. 8 general election, as of Saturday. More detail:
Early voting: 12,668 ballots cast for early voting for the first five days. It’s an average of 2,500 a day.
Comparison to 2018 (skip 2020 due to Covid skewing data):
2018: 13,175 early voted in first five days.
2022: 12,668 early voted in first five days.
After severe suppression of 2020 early vote by Covid restrictions, the 2022 early vote is only off 3.8% from 2018 normal year performance
Absentee voting: 15,879 absentee ballots returned.
Saturday was a slow day for early and absentee voting, with only 609 new absentees returned, and 1,098 people voting early.
A sampling of high-voting districts:
- District 3 North Juneau-Haines-Skagway: 1,290 early and absentee votes in so far.
- District 4 Downtown Juneau: 1,111 early and absentee ballots in.
- District 6 Seldovia-Homer-Kasilof: 1,354 early and absentee votes cast.
- District 9 South Anchorage (old 28): 1,524 ballots received so far. D-9 is typically the highest turnout in the state. While the lines may have changed, the record is intact.
51,876 absentee ballots have been requested, possibly the highest number ever other than 2020 (Covid year, which was an outlier). The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot was Oct. 29.
