Elections Director: Rural Alaska voting plan in place following primary concerns
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - After 20 rural communities received primary election absentee ballots late and struggled with election day weather and staffing problems, the state’s elections director says a plan is being put in place to prevent future issues.
The primary election earlier this month included Wales and Kaktovik not having open polling locations on election day.
“Our mitigation plan is to send the ballots to Nome a week or more earlier so they can be mailed to the AVO locations at least the week prior to the opening date,” Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher said. “For those polling places that did not open on election day, we are meeting with various entities to secure a deeper bench, and working to communicate with the tribal and city leaders for their assistance when a worker quits or is not available on election day.”
According to Get Out The Native Vote Director Michelle Sparck, the DOE director’s path forward is merely the start.
In the 2022 primary, Sparck said there was a 16% voter rejection experience in Alaska’s Region IV, which holds predominantly Alaska Native precincts. That was four times higher than the statewide average.
Sparck said 1,900 ballots were thrown out because they were hand-canceled by the post office after the deadline.
While she acknowledges some of that can be attributed to voter error, some of it could be due to systemic barriers.
“We pointed this out to the Senate state affairs committee in 2023 that there needed to be a lot better coordination between the Division of Elections and the United States Postal Service that is responsible as a very integral part of operating elections for our communities,” Sparck said.
Beecher said that based on a USPS tracking receipt, the elections division was able to determine that the following 20 communities did not receive materials until after Aug. 5:
- Aniak
- Bethel
- Kalskag
- St. Paul Island
- White Mountain
- Kotlik
- Kokhanok
- Nikolski
- Akutan
- Pedro Bay
- Atka
- Sand Point
- St. George
- Stony River
- Napaskiak
- Deering
- Kivalina
- Shaktoolik
- Koyuk
- St. Michael
As for the issues concerning the 2024 primary, Sparck said nothing had been brought to the attention of Get Out The Native Vote until the night of the election. She says serious mitigation efforts and clearer communication are needed to catch problems far in advance.
Additionally, with other state regional supervisors being more seasoned in their positions, Sparck said Region IV continues to “play catch up.”
She said in order for the region to be successful in future elections, a veteran regional supervisor who has an expertise in dealing with villages and the idiosyncrasies and cultural and language barriers is required.
“They can’t just act as an efficient for the state of Alaska and the division, they need to act as an advocate for what actually works in our villages in return,” Sparck said. “It takes a village to make an election happen. We need a good system in place with the Division of elections, the Postal Service and the air carriers, and we need to be a lot more collaborative so that we can reduce these barriers to voting, whether or not they are organic or if they’re a staffing problem.”
Justice Department Monitors Voting Rights Laws Compliance
One day prior to the Aug. 20 primary, the Justice Department issued a press release announcing it would be monitoring compliance with federal voting rights laws in certain jurisdictions in the state during the election.
Federal observers were assigned in the census areas of Bethel, Dillingham, Kusilvak, Nome and North Slope Borough to monitor for compliance with the language requirements of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, which includes the provision of election assistance in Yup’ik dialects.
While Aryele Bradford, a senior communications advisor for the Justice Department, declined to comment on its election monitoring, the release stated that the department “regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country.”
The announcement came just two months after the Justice Department found Alaska violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide an accessible ballot for in-person voting, selecting inaccessible polling places for federal, state, and local elections, and maintaining an inaccessible elections website.
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