Union shop busy calling for votes in Anchorage election?

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MAYOR’S ESSENTIAL SERVICE: GETTING OUT THE BLUE VOTE

On Monday, one day before the end of the Anchorage municipal election, MRAK counted 14 trucks and cars parked in front of the IBEW hall on Denali Street. That’s an unusual number of vehicles for a Monday.

It was time for the phone banks, and the union wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to turn out the base.

Unions like IBEW have conquered the art of turning out the vote. They pay their members to come in and work the phone banks and typically right before the election is when they’re busiest. Right now, during a work slow down, there appeared to be plenty of help.

While Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has mandated stop-work orders posted on companies such as Sportsman’s Warehouse, his enforcers have allowed the union phone banks to proceed, unmolested by the COVID-19 social distancing and business shutdown orders.

On Tuesday, the number of cars at the union hall had returned to normal, about seven. Today is the last day to get that ballot into the mail or a drop box in the Anchorage bowl.

So far, over 50,000 ballots have been received, and election workers had verified over 43,000 of them by late yesterday.

(Readers who wonder if their ballots have been received by the Muni can send a note to [email protected] and she’ll try to respond quickly. Her list goes through Monday morning.)

The only place to vote in person today is at City Hall until 8 pm.

If voters have questions about voting or the election, call the Voter Hotline at 243-VOTE(8683).

Drop boxes can be found at:

  • Anchorage Police Department Elmore Facility, 4501 Elmore
  • Anchorage School District Education Center, 5530 E. Northern Lights Blvd.
  • Bartlett High School, 1101 Golden Bear Drive
  • City Hall, 632 West 6th Ave.
  • Clark Middle School, 150 Bragaw Street
  • Dimond High School, 2909 West 88th Ave.
  • Eagle River Town Center, 12002 Business Blvd.
  • Fairview Community Recreation Center, 1121 East 10th Ave.
  • Girdwood Community Center, 250 Egloff Drive
  • Loussac Library, 3600 Denali Street
  • Municipal Election Center, 619 East Ship Creek Avenue
  • O’Malley’s on the Green, 3651 O’Malley Road
  • Service High School, 5577 Abbott Road
  • Spenard Community Recreation Center, 2020 West 48th AVe.
  • South Anchorage High School, 13400 Elmore Road
  • UAA Alaska Airlines Center, 3550 Providence Drive
  • West High School, 1700 Hillcrest Drive

The Alaska Family Council voter guide has recommendations for candidates and ballot initiatives appearing on the ballot, which must be delivered or postmarked by 8 pm.

5 COMMENTS

  1. People mobilize all the time to encourage their party or their favorites support. There’s nothing wrong with that. The union hall is private property just like your home is. You can invite whomever you want to your home and if your not breaking the law there’s nothing wrong with it. Unless you actually went in the hall and observed their spacing your just speculating that they were violating the covid-19 mandates. It’s merely your opinion nothing more.

  2. I’ve been watching this C-19 virus progress and while I can’t draw any definitive conclusions, it does appear to have an affinity for stupid.

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