Voters at Anchorage City Hall wait in line to cast their ballots on Monday, the day before Election Day. City hall, in downtown Anchorage, was one of the designated early voting sites in the state’s largest city; however, it is not an Election Day polling site. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Across Alaska’s sprawling distances and for Alaskans living temporarily out of state, there are multiple options for casting ballots. Alaska is a no-excuse state for absentee voting, meaning anyone who wants to vote absentee may do so. Alaskans are also able to vote outside their precincts and legislative districts, although there may be some extra paperwork required to do that.
Election Day procedures
On Election Day, polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Election Day procedures are explained by the Alaska Division of Elections. To validate their eligibility, voters need to bring a voter identification card, driver’s license, state ID, other photo ID, passport or even a hunting or fishing license. If those identifiers are not available, voters can present a current utility bill or paycheck, government check or bank statement or any other government-issued document, as long as those show the voters’ addresses, according to the division.
Where to vote
Registered voters can locate their precincts through the Alaska Division of Elections website.
Schools are commonly used as polling sites, and the state’s two largest school districts have made special arrangements for Election Day that ensure that students will not be filling buildings. In the Anchorage School District, it is a designated distance-learning day, and in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, it is a professional development day for teachers.
Absentee in-person voting
For people who are not in their home precincts or do not know where their precincts are located, there are other Election Day options.There are several sites within the state that fully accommodate voters who are casting ballots outside of the designated precincts and legislative districts.
Polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the five Alaska Division of Elections regional offices: in Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, Wasilla and Nome. Another all-comers polling site is at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Also open on Election Day are polling sites at the University of Alaska student union and the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Wood Center. In the North Slope oil field area, voters can use a polling site at Prudhoe Bay’s Service Area 10 Camp Building 8.
These polling sites have ballots corresponding to every legislative district in the state. While in-person absentee voting is available elsewhere, only the Division of Elections offices, the airport and the university and Prudhoe Bay sites have ballots for every state House district.
Questioned ballots
Voters who show up at precincts but find that they are not on the list of eligible voters can still cast ballots, as long as they submit some additional identifying information. Their ballots are kept separate and classified as “questioned,” meaning they are provisional and will be reviewed later to ensure voter eligibility.
Eligible voters who cast questioned ballots will have their votes on statewide contests counted, but whether their choices in legislative races count will depend on the precinct location. Out-of-precinct voters will be given ballots for the legislative district to which the precinct belongs. If voters submitting questioned ballots are in the correct district, their legislative choices will count even if their ballots are cast in the wrong precinct.
Voting by mail
Alaskans intending to vote by mail should have received their ballots at least 10 days prior to the election. The deadline for applying for an absentee ballot was Oct. 6; applications had to be postmarked by then.
Returned ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, though the U.S. Postal Service has advised voters around the nation to mail their ballots earlier. If you are mailing your ballot on Monday or Tuesday, go inside a local post office and ask to have it postmarked by hand. In Alaska, most mail is automatically postmarked in Anchorage or Juneau, so a ballot mailed elsewhere in the state may not be postmarked for several days.
Because of the size of the envelope, ballots returned by mail must have two first-class postage stamps, according to the division.
Absentee ballots must arrive within 10 days of Election Day to be counted in Alaska, or within 15 days if they are mailed from outside the United States.
There is an option to bypass the mail system. Completed absentee ballots may be dropped off at any polling location. Polling sites have drop boxes specifically for that purpose.
There is also an option, albeit a little-used one, to vote by fax or electronically. However, any voters wanting a ballot sent to them by fax or email had to have the request submitted to the division by 5 p.m. Alaska time on Monday. Absentee ballots may not be returned electronically.
Voters needing assistance
Voters with physical disabilities are entitled to assistance at polling locations. That means those voters can be accompanied by a helper, “as long as that person is not a candidate, your employer, an agent of your employer, or an agent of your union,” the Division of Elections website says. Voters needing such assistance can also get it from workers at polling places.
The Division of Elections, according to its website, provides magnifying viewers for the visually impaired and voting tablets with magnified text and audio ballots for those who need them to vote.
Polling sites are required to be fully accessible to the disabled, even if that means installation of temporary amenities like wheelchair ramps and easier-to-use doorknobs. Alaska election officials in the past have fallen short of those legal requirements, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
When is it over?
Polls in almost all of Alaska close at 8 p.m. Alaska Standard Time, or midnight Eastern Standard Time, which puts the state in a tie with Hawaii for the latest closing time.
What if there are still crowds at poll-closing time? Stay put, the Division of Elections advises. “If voters are in line by 8pm, they should stay in line. Election officials will process all voters who are in line by 8 pm,” Michaela Thompson, the division’s operations manager, said by email.
There is one exception to the 8 p.m. Alaska Standard Time closure.
Adak, the nation’s westernmost municipality, is on Hawaii-Aleutian time, one hour behind mainland Alaska. There is only one precinct on the islands, at Bob Reeves High School, but it has the distinction of being the last U.S. precinct to close in the election. That precinct is open until 8 p.m. Hawaii-Aleutian Time, which is 1 a.m. Wednesday morning Eastern Standard Time.
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