Alaskan voters are taking part in a new type of election this weekend. This is the first fully postal election in the state’s history. And it’s an open primary, allowing people to choose from candidates for both parties — this is also new in the state.
Voters have a long list of choices: a whopping 48 candidates are running for the state’s only house sheet. One of them is former Governor Sarah Palin. A man legally named Santa Claus is also on the ballot.
The special primary will replace Congressman Don Young, the longest Republican in the House when he died in March.
Voters in Alaska must vote by mail until 7:59 pm local time on Saturday. Election Commissioners will start counting ballots after the deadline and release preliminary voting counts in the next few hours, but informal final results may not be known until June 21st.
And on a new issue, state court judges will not be able to prove the outcome of the race until Friday, when visually impaired voters are “provided with a complete and impartial opportunity to participate.” Was ruled. Alaska planned to ask the State Supreme Court to review the decision.
All of the state’s more than 595,000 voters were mailed a ballot for the contest. As of June 8, nearly 20 percent of them had already sent ballots, according to the report. statistics Issued by the Alaska Elections Department (and about 87,000 were returned as undeliverable). In the 2018 primary Voter turnout By the time all the votes were counted, 20 percent were shy.
With the new nonpartisan primary, approved by voters as part of the 2020 voting initiative, the four candidates for the party with the most votes will be in the general election on August 16th, where voters will rank in turn. It is expected to proceed. Favorite.This is called Ranked selection votesUsed by New York City for the first time last year (reviews were mixed).
The winner, determined on August 16, will fill the rest of the term’s seats until January, assuming the elections are approved on time.
However, because August 16 is also the day of the regular primary elections in Alaska, including the 2023-2025 term of the House of Representatives, voters will display the candidate’s name twice on the same ballot. The first is to determine the outcome of the special general election. And once, he selects a candidate who will advance to the general election this fall with a two-year term.
Of the candidates running in special elections, only 26 are running in regular elections. I also submitted some others.
According to Tiffany Montemayor, public relations manager for the elections department, Alaska’s election office has a state-wide voter education program that includes “almost anything you can do” to help voters navigate the new features of this year’s elections. It was started.
“Radio ads, bus ads, any kind of medium that you can talk to, we’re going to use it for voter education,” Montemor-o-Vall said.