Tag: ketchikan

By: James Brooks, 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.2026 Voter Guide

The candidates, the ballot measures, and the tools you need to cast your vote.

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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. 

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.

By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon

The Alaska Legislature ended the first week of its third special session on the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline with no action.

The session is for lawmakers to consider a property tax break to incentivize the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who called the session and set the agenda, has yet to propose legislation for lawmakers to work on. 

The state House failed to pass a compromise bill earlier this month, during the second special session of 2026, after Dunleavy threatened to veto it. 

The governor has said he is holding closed-door negotiations to try to draft an alternative, but his office has released no details about those discussions.

Two members of the House and one member of the Senate held perfunctory “technical sessions” on Friday. 

Article II, Section 10 of the state constitution requires regular meetings unless lawmakers approve a resolution allowing a different schedule.

The House has scheduled another technical session for this morning, and the Senate has scheduled one for Tuesday morning.

By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon

Alaskans will decide whether to overhaul the state’s elections system with a ballot measure that would repeal ranked choice voting, reinstate closed primaries and repeal campaign disclosure rules established in 2020. 

Ballot Measure 2, which will appear on the ballots as 24ESEG, is one of two ballot measures that will appear on the general election ballot in November. Ballot Measure 1, which would impose campaign contribution limits, will be on the primary ballot on Aug. 18. 

Officials with the Alaska Division of Elections held the first of two public hearings to gather input on the ballot measures Monday, as required by law. Campaign supporters, opponents and Alaskans called in from around the state to the Anchorage Legislative Information Office to share their views at an event chaired by Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom. A second day of public hearings for public testimony will be held on Aug. 5.

A similar ballot measure to repeal ranked choice voting was voted down in 2024 by 737 votes out of 320,985 cast. Supporters quickly restarted the campaign in 2025 and collected over 34,000 signatures, required to place the issue before Alaska voters again in 2026. The measure’s primary sponsors are Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson, along with Judy Eledge of Anchorage and Ken McCarty of Eagle River. 

If approved, Ballot Measure 2 would repeal changes established by a 2020 ballot measure. It would repeal the nonpartisan, open primary system and ranked choice general election. 

Currently, Alaska voters of any party affiliation can vote for any candidate in the primary election. If approved, the measure would revert the state’s elections to the closed primary system, where only one candidate from each party advances to the general election, and parties choose who may participate in that party’s vote.

The measure would also repeal some campaign finance disclosure rules. It would repeal limits enacted by the ballot measure passed in 2020 so that individuals and entities who contribute more than $2,000 to candidates or campaigns must disclose the true source, as defined by law. According to the ballot summary from the Division of Elections, the measure would remove spending limits and disclosure rules, including for digital ads, out-of-state donations, undisclosed donations and true source donations. It would also change the definition of “campaign expenditure” and remove some fines for violations. 

If passed, the changes would cost the state an estimated $2.6 million to implement, according to the Alaska Public Offices Commission. 

Supporters of the ballot measure, called the “Repeal Now” campaign, argue that ranked choice voting is confusing and burdensome to voters, and advocated for returning to the pre-2020 system. 

Bethany Marcum, treasurer for Repeal Now, testified at the hearing on Monday, advocating for each voter to have a single vote for a candidate or measure. “Our campaign is about one person, one vote. That’s been the bedrock of the American Republic for the last 250 years,” she said.

Marcum argued ranking choices for candidates is complicated and voters complain about making mistakes. She objected to the tabulation system of counting up to four ranked choices. 

If voters do not fill out second, third or fourth candidates, or all their candidates have been eliminated, their ballot is set aside, which Marcum objected to, falsely claiming “ballots were trashed.” But voters’ top choice candidates are counted.

She also blamed ranked choice voting for delaying election results. She said campaign disclosure rules set in 2020 hadn’t prevented “dark money,” or money whose source is secret, from flowing to Alaska, and she said the campaign finance reporting requirements are burdensome to smaller campaigns.

“So, in our opinion, the money overwhelms the disclaimer, and Alaskans recognize this. Smaller campaigns have to spend up to a third more of their money and their ad space on these disclaimers that do nothing to inform the public,” Marcum said.

Opponents of Ballot Measure 2 argue the ranked choice voting system gives voters more choices at the ballot box, and deters extreme partisans while encouraging candidates to appeal to a wider variety of voters. They argued against repealing campaign disclosure rules they say will welcome more Outside, undisclosed “dark money” into Alaska elections.

Scott Kendall testified on behalf of the No on 2 campaign, registered as a group called Protect Alaska’s Elections. He argued the system is not too complicated for voters, and Alaska has implemented ranked choice voting well. He countered that delays in election results are caused by unavoidable delays in the U.S. Postal Service, as nearly a quarter of the state’s precincts must vote by mail. 

“The mail system in Alaska is what it is,” he said. “We have to wait for ballots to be brought in from across the state before we can tabulate. Again, that has nothing to do with ranked choice voting, because as those of us who have participated know, the actual tabulation process takes mere seconds. It’s nearly instantaneous.”

Kendall argued repealing campaign disclosure rules would have a larger negative impact on Alaska than repealing open primaries and ranked choice voting.

“Ballot Measure 2 is a bit of a Trojan horse … repealing RCV, that is only a fraction of what the measure does,” he said. “No longer will there be a ban on dark money. In fact, any outside billionaire will be able to give money to another organization, and launder their contributions to that organization. And finally, it lowers or actually removes fines for certain campaign finance misbehavior.” 

Kendall also argued returning to closed primaries would give political parties the authority to determine who can vote in their primary elections. 

“In a state like Alaska, where two-thirds of all voters do not register with either party, the thought of taking publicly funded elections and allowing the political parties to choke off who can participate in them should be abhorrent,” he said.

Alaskans who called in or testified in person at the hearing on Monday were split, arguing vehemently in support and against the ballot measure.

Several testifiers in support of the measure said ranked choice voting is too complicated.

“We don’t need confusion,” said Mark Spohn, calling in from Willow to testify. “Anytime you have confusion, your elections aren’t as accurate and honest. It’s completely ridiculous. Let’s get rid of the insanity and go back to one person, one vote.”

Testifiers opposing the measure objected to repealing campaign finance disclosures.

Bryan Schroder, a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and former U.S. Attorney in Alaska, urged keeping the current disclosure requirements and ranked choice system to encourage bipartisanship. 

“Now, when our candidates campaign, they have to appeal to a majority of voters, not just the hardcore wing of any political party,” he said. “We have a Legislature where more members are willing to work together to do what is best for Alaskans, actively choosing against the do-nothing tribal politics that frustrates so many of us, and as a colleague of mine put it, ‘the workhorses are coming to the front, not the show horses.’”

Several testifiers objected to returning to the closed party system, where voters could have to register with a particular party to vote for their candidate, including Michelle Vasquez of Soldotna. She said that forced her to vote only a Republican ballot, and restricted her from voting for other candidates. 

“And that drove me crazy,” she said. “So I was very happy when I changed my party affiliation to unaffiliated like five years ago, so that I could vote however I wished without any confusion or misunderstandings or having to change my voter registration.”

Both the yes and no campaigns criticize each others’ out-of-state funders

Supporters and opponents of the ballot measure criticized each other at the hearing for taking Outside funding from big donors. 

Both campaigns have raised large sums of money since 2025, with contributions from out-of-state political action committees, according to public filings with the Alaska Public Offices Commission and Federal Elections Commission. 

The “Repeal Now” campaign supporting the measure has raised $1.1 million to date. 

The majority of funds, $846,000, have been donated by the Aurora Action Network, a Super PAC based in Wisconsin whose major donors include finance billionaire Jeff Yass of Pennsylvania. 

Other Alaska-affiliated contributors to the Aurora Action Network include Jeff Hildebrand, CEO of Hilcorp; John Binkley, trustee of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.; Treg Taylor, Republican gubernatorial candidate and former attorney general, and Deena Bishop, state education commissioner, according to FEC filings.  

The opposing No on 2 campaign has raised $5.75 million to date. 

The campaign’s largest donor is Unite America PAC, Inc — contributing $4 million to date — a Colorado-based venture fund founded by a professor and advocate Charles Whelan, focused on funding elections reforms, in particular creating open, all-candidate primaries. Its biggest donors include Jason Carroll, a New York financier; Kent Thiry, a Colorado philanthropist who co-chairs Unite America; and David Randolph Peeler, an executive with the private equity firm Berkshire Partners. 

The campaign has also received $1.5 million from Voters from the American Center, Inc., a Washington D.C. political nonprofit that supports lobbying “to advance democratic participation and strengthen democracy’s core systems,” according to a philanthropic trade outlet, philanthropy.org.