Emergency department visits for tick bites reached their highest level in more than a decade this spring, according to the Centers for Disease Control and … Read moreThe post Back-to-school season brings a hidden tick risk for kids appeared first…
Category: Alaska News
(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards remained silent early Tuesday in the wake of Monday’s report from the Committee on Ethics recommending an ethics censure for inappropriate behavior with female staff members.
Here’s how to sift through complicated studies without getting overwhelmed.
Different AI applications displayed from a smartphone’s screen, from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI, Grok to DeepSeek.
The Conversation reports that while AI, like ChatGPT, excels in diagnosing health issues, human doctors are superior in managing treatment decisions and personalized care.
Recently, Autogrill was named as one of the top 130 most innovative businesses in Italy by Statista for Il Corriere della Sera. The roadside restaurant … Read moreThe post Italy’s most overlooked cultural experience is off the next exit appeared…
(The Center Square) – California’s ethics agency oversees an unlimited, blank-check system of payments solicited by elected officials — including the $347 million Gov. Gavin Newsom has steered through California politics. An investigation by The Center Square has found the…
Post Content
A group of pro-democracy demonstrators gathers Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Juneau on the first day of early voting for the 2026 Alaska primary election. (James Brooks photo/Alaska Beacon)
Early in-person voting began Monday at 10 locations in the Railbelt, Juneau and Nome for Alaska’s Aug. 18 statewide primary election. As of July 31, just under 10,000 voters had requested absentee ballots for the election, and hundreds of absentee voters had already mailed in their votes, according to figures from the Alaska Division of Elections.
What’s at stake?
This election decides the four U.S. House, U.S. Senate and governor candidates who will be in the November general election. It also decides whether Alaska will limit the amount of money that political donors can give directly to candidates.
Because the top four candidates for an office advance to the November general election — and because most of the 50 state legislative races have four or fewer candidates — the primary doesn’t mean as much for most legislative races individually.
But because the difference between a Republican-led state House and Senate and a predominantly Democratic coalition-led state House and Senate may come down to a few votes, the handful of contested legislative elections may be important.
Watch Eagle River, where incumbent Republican Rep. Jamie Allard is facing four challengers, or the eastern Mat-Su, where Dunleavy-appointed Republican Rep. Garret Nelson has five opponents. In the western Mat-Su, Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe has four challengers.
In the Senate, watch southwest Alaska, where Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, has retired and seven candidates — including current Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham — are running for the open seat.
Seven people are running for the state House seat that Edgmon is leaving open.
What’s the difference between absentee voting and early voting?
The difference is when your ID is verified. At an early voting location, a poll worker looks up your voter registration at a computer to verify that you’re registered to vote in a specific district, then hands you a ballot from that district.
You’ll want to bring a driver’s license, tribal ID or something else to verify your identity. Even a piece of mail with your current name and address will work. If the poll worker knows you, they can also verify your identity without ID.
When you vote absentee, you get a ballot for a district, then seal it inside an envelope and fill out the cover of that envelope with identity information.
Starting Aug. 11, review boards will begin checking the information on those envelopes to verify that those absentee ballots came from registered voters. The ballots within those envelopes will be counted once the polls close Aug. 18.
Absentee ballots can be mailed to the Division of Elections, or they can be cast in person at dozens of places across the state. While there’s only 11 early voting places in Alaska, there are many, many more places to cast in-person absentee votes, including at most city clerks offices.
Which method is best?
Mailed absentee ballots will be counted as long as they’re postmarked on or before election day and reach the Division of Elections no later than Aug. 28.
In Alaska, not all mail is postmarked on the day it is mailed, so be sure to mail your ballot a few days early.
If you’re worried about mail delays, take your absentee ballot to one of the locations listed here before election day, or do early voting in person.
Ranked-choice voting? Hold on. Alaskans have another ballot measure to decide first.
You can also fax a completed absentee ballot to the Division of Elections. If you don’t have a fax machine, you can use a scan-to-fax app on your cellphone instead.
Early voting ensures your vote gets counted, since your ID is verified up front, your ballot is already scanned and ready to be counted, and there’s a paper copy for any recounts and reviews.
The drawback is that it’s only offered in 10 places within the state, and if you’re traveling Outside or not close to one of those 10 places, it’s not available.
What does the ballot look like?
Your ballot will have two sides. On the front side are the U.S. House and U.S. Senate races. On the back side are the governor, state House and state Senate races. There’s also an option for Ballot Measure 1.
Pick one candidate for each race. Ranked-choice voting, when you’ll rank up to four candidates, is in November.
Use a blue or black pen to fill in the oval. Don’t use a permanent marker.
When will results be available?
The first unofficial results will be posted online about 9 p.m. on Aug. 18. Full election day totals may take a few days to arrive as rural precincts report their results. Absentee ballots will be counted day by day, with new totals expected Aug. 25 and then on Aug. 28, when the last unofficial results will be posted.
Aug. 31 is when the division expects to certify the final results. That’s also the date for any top-four candidates to withdraw, something that has happened in prior years for strategic reasons.
Lower-finishing Republicans, in particular, have been willing to drop out of the top four to ensure that only one Republican appears on the November ballot.
Correction: This story has been updated with the correct date of the primary election, Aug. 18.
The Alaska Beacon, Alaska Public Media, KTOO and the Anchorage Daily News worked together this year and have created a voter guide to help Alaskans make informed choices when they vote.
The 2026 Alaska Voter Guide won’t replace debates, forums and public statements. Instead, it’s something extra, aimed at informing voters about what candidates believe and providing a tool to hold them accountable once elected.
We’ve been working for months on this and are pleased to present it to you today, on the opening day of early in-person voting.
Each news organization asked its readers, viewers and listeners a basic question: What do you want candidates to talk about?
That’s what’s called the “citizens agenda” — where election reporting is less about determining who’s ahead, and more about what a candidate’s positions are and how they would affect things if elected.
We sent emails to every candidate in the first week of July and followed up by phone calls in the second week. We continued reaching out, by email, text message and phone call, throughout July.
In the end, 107 of 132 state legislative candidates responded — 81% of everyone running for the Legislature. That’s a huge improvement over two years ago, when 78 of 115 candidates answered a survey from the Beacon alone, or 67.8%. Four years ago, the Beacon’s rate was below 60%.
For the governor’s race, 14 of 17 candidates responded. For the U.S. House race, we received responses from 11 of 15 candidates, including Democratic candidate Matt Schultz, who has suspended his campaign but is still on the ballot. In the U.S. Senate race, we have answers from 11 of 16 candidates.
While it isn’t everyone — and we’ll continue pursuing answers — we’re proud to say that this questionnaire is the most complete one that you can find anywhere in Alaska.
When it comes to the Legislative races, the Beacon had the lead role and was in charge of questions. Here’s what we asked candidates and why:
Would you be willing to serve in a coalition majority where members of the other party are in leadership? Why or why not?
Whoever is in the majority controls the agenda and decides which bills advance and which bills fail. Alaska is the only state in the country with coalitions in both the House and Senate. The difference between a Republican-led majority and a coalition one is a big one in terms of what the Legislature does over the next two years.
What’s the biggest need in your district, and how would you address it?
This is an opportunity for candidates to show how much they know about local needs; it’s also a chance for them to talk about any issues we didn’t bring up.
What do you think should be done to improve public education in the state?
You, our readers, wanted candidates to talk about education more than anything else. This gave candidates a chance to talk about their platform.
How should the Alaska Legislature handle the Permanent Fund dividend?
This was probably the No. 2 issue that you brought up when we asked you what you wanted candidates to talk about.
How should lawmakers balance state revenue and expenses in the long term?
This is closely tied to the dividend question and meets your request to ask candidates about a fiscal plan.
When you look at the state budget, what’s the No. 1 thing you’d like to see cut or reduced, and what’s your No. 1 preferred way to raise new state revenue?
Like the previous question, this is a way to test candidates about their knowledge of the state budget and get their thoughts on a fiscal plan. That will be a major topic over the next two years.
What, if any, changes does the state need to make to its elections and voting system?
Voting and elections came up again and again when we asked readers what they wanted candidates to discuss. The Legislature has tried — and failed — to enact an elections bill over the past six years, so it’s a safe bet that the 35th Legislature will try again.
What threats do you see facing Alaska in the next four years?
This was our way of allowing candidates to show their priorities — what are they most worried about?
What should legislators do to make Alaska a better place for children and families?
This question came in response to your desire to see candidates talk about preschool, daycare, early childhood education and more.
As Alaska’s average age rises, what needs to be done to make the state a better place for older residents?
Alaska is the fastest-aging state in the country, and that trend is expected to continue. It’s something that the next Legislature will have to address. This question allows candidates to speak to older Alaskans directly.
What should Alaska do to keep residents and visitors safe from crime and disaster?
This question gave candidates a chance to talk about crime and climate change, data centers, energy shortages … it was really open-ended.
What, if any, change would you make to state law to support the Alaskans who are dependent on fish harvests and the fishing industry?
Candidates have been talking about fishing quite a bit this year, but it’d be a mistake to ask state-level candidates about trawling, given that most of it takes place in federal waters and there’s little the Legislature can do about it. So this question is more general.
What do people not know about you that you think they should know?
We’re not normally a fan of softball questions in these surveys, but they can be an opportunity to get to know a candidate’s personality, so this was an open-ended opportunity.
What should the Legislature do to help Alaskans with the high cost of living?
Inflation and cost of living came up as issues in a big way later in the spring, and we wanted to make sure we asked candidates about it.
How are the Trump administration’s policies working in Alaska? Where do you see them working well, and where do you see problems?
Our readers wanted very much to hear candidates talk about Donald Trump and whether they’re for or against him and his policies. This is a way to bring that question to a state level and make it applicable to the Legislature.