Update: As of late Friday, the Division of Elections has made this announcement: PLEASE NOTE: Absentee Voting in-person materials have arrived at all locations.
Registered voters can vote in-person at designated Absentee/Early Voting locations. If your location states ‘date and time to be determined’ your location did not opt to have Absentee-in-person voting available. Please contact the division at 907-270-2700 if your AVO is not open.
Additional Absentee voting options are still available – Saturday, August 10 is the deadline to apply for an absentee by mail ballot for a ballot to be mailed to you. You can also apply for an electronic transmission delivery ballot (online or fax) which can be faxed or mailed back to the division. The deadline to apply for an absentee by electronic transmission is Monday, August 19 at 5pm. Contact the division at 907-270-2700 if you have questions about voting Absentee.
Original story:
Absentee and early voting began Monday in Alaska for the primary election, which ends Aug. 20.
But as of Friday, Aug. 9, the Division of Elections still has a vague notice posted on its website saying that some absentee voting locations have had voting supplies delayed by the U.S. mail and are not yet able to assist voters in casting their ballots.
“For additional options please contact the Absentee & Petition office at 907-270-2700. The Division will update the public once we have more information,” the division says on its website.
Neither the division nor the lieutenant governor has released any helpful information to the public, even five days after voting began.
Candidates and campaigns who have contacted the division can’t get answers about which villages are lacking ballots. That puts the campaigns at a disadvantage if they wanted to do outreach to those communities to alert them to the alternatives for early absentee voting. People who usually hear back from the Division of Elections tell Must Read Alaska they are getting no response.
The problem seems to have impacted communities that typically vote heavily for Democrats.
For example, Akiak (population 451), Aleknagik (pop. 204), and Brevig Mission City (pool 417) are among those communities listed in the “to be determined” category on the division’s website.
Other communities impacted may include Kokhanok, Nikolski, Akutan, Pedro Bay, Atka, Sand Point, St. George, Stony River, Napaskiak, Deering, Kivalina, Shaktoolik, Koyuk, and St. Michael.
The question now becomes: Will Democrats or their lawyer friends sue the Division of Elections and the U.S. Postal Service for not providing ballots on time in these remote corners of the state, where mail is notoriously slow? This would make it especially awkward for the lieutenant governor, who is on the ballot this year as she runs for U.S. House.
In 2012, then-Gov. Mead Treadwell signed an order expanding the sites for absentee voting locations, more than doubling the number of voting centers by 123 new locations. It was a way to calm down Native activists who were suing over language translations of the ballots and who wanted more voting centers in the most rural areas of the state, even though they are not used enough to justify the expense.
Hardly any voters in Native villages use the early voting options, but by mailing ballots out to the villages, many of which are ruled by tribal councils, it introduces another element of possible election fraud, something the State can do little about. One case of felony-level election fraud is now going to court involving officials in Pilot Station, pop. 600, but others in past years have been scant legal attention.
The Aug. 20 primary is the final day when people can vote in Alaska to decide the finalists for the November ballot.
