By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon

Most state offices may be closed on Monday for Alaska Day, but officials with the Alaska Division of Elections are planning to be at work for the first day of early in-person voting in the 2026 general election.

In Anchorage, early voting will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday at Midtown Mall and Anchorage City Hall. 

Other voting locations will be open in Eagle River, Fairbanks, Juneau, Kenai, Nome, Palmer and Wasilla.

A full list of locations and operating days and times has been posted online by the division. All votes must be cast before or on Election Day, Nov. 3.

Dozens of in-person absentee voting locations will also open starting Monday across the state, but there is a key difference between early voting and absentee voting, which has also been taking place by mail and fax for weeks.

In early voting, the voter’s identity is checked up front, before voting, so the ballot is guaranteed to count. With absentee voting, whether in person, by mail or fax, the voter’s ID isn’t checked until the ballot reaches the Division of Elections.

If the voter’s identity can’t be verified, or if there’s another procedural problem, the ballot may be rejected and not counted. Alaska doesn’t offer a way for absentee voters to fix procedural problems.

In addition, absentee ballots can be affected by delivery delays. In this year’s primary election, dozens of absentee ballots cast in person were rejected because they didn’t reach a hub location in time for review.

The division said it has changed its procedures for the general election in order to prevent that problem.

But mail delays may still keep some absentee ballots from being counted.

Under state law, a mailed ballot must arrive within 10 days after Election Day if mailed from within the United States,or 15 days afterward, if mailed from outside the country. Those ballots will be counted as long as they were postmarked on or before Election Day.

Any ballots that arrive after that deadline will not be counted.