Election Day on the central Kenai Peninsula came with a break in a stretch of dreary weather and reports of high voter turnout. The sun shone on the hundreds of voters that took to the ballot box to help decide the future of state and national politics. In Alaska, polls don’t close until 8 p.m. And in some races, final results won’t come for another two weeks.
In addition to candidates for U.S. President and Vice President, Alaska voters are also considering U.S. House candidates, state legislators and two ballot measures.
The first proposition would expand worker rights by requiring employers to provide sick leave, increasing the minimum wage and barring employers from requiring employee attendance at political or religious meetings. The second proposition would repeal Alaska’s open primary and ranked-choice voting election systems, which voters passed in 2020.
On Tuesday morning, Lloyd Davis was canvassing for Democratic U.S. House candidate Mary Peltola in neighborhoods between Soldotna and Sterling. He estimates he’s visited more than 1,800 houses this election season, roughly one in five of which actually hear his pitch. He says only a handful of people have slammed doors in his face.
“Everybody's busy down here, so it's hard to catch people,” Davis said. “But when I do, it's a precious gem, you know, because having our voice heard is important as a whole.”
Davis was born and raised in Kodiak and now lives in Kasilof. He’s a commercial fisherman and says he shares Peltola’s priorities of family, freedom and the subsistence way of life. While canvassing, he says his first priority is convincing people to vote. Then he explains why he’s backing Peltola.
“If she wins or not, she's still got our backs, and I believe that,” he said.
Roughly four miles west, a handful of people waved signs for a variety of candidates at the intersection of the Sterling and Kenai Spur highways.
On one corner, Billie Hardy was holding a red sign supporting incumbent Republican Alaska Senate candidate Jesse Bjorkman. She says there are a few reasons she’s backing Bjorkman.
“Because of his integrity, his honesty, his good policies,” she said. “He listens to people and I like the way he represents us in the Senate.”
Hardy said education is important to her.
She says Bjorkman voted “the right way” on education funding when he supported increasing the base amount of money school districts get per student from the state. He and his opponent, Republican challenger Rep. Ben Carpenter, differ on education, which is playing a big role in legislative races around the state.
On the same corner was Ed Oberts, who was waving signs for Carpenter and Republican State House candidate Ron Gillham. Oberts says he likes Carpenter and Gillham because they’re conservatives with a common-sense approach to education that includes opposing the National Education Association, the labor union that represents teachers.
“Just not fund education but actually expect and demand results,” he said. “And we need to get this wokeness out of our schools.”
Oberts says he’s also voting for Republican U.S Presidential candidate Donald Trump and U.S. House candidate Nick Begich. He says he and his wife attended this year’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, his wife as a delegate and him as an alternate.
“It was exciting,” he said. “It was right after, you know, him being shot. The feeling in the stadium was just unreal to actually be there in person.”
Across the street, Bjorkman, Gillham and Republican State House candidate Justin Ruffridge were waving signs for their respective campaigns.
Bjorkman said he’s spending election night at home with his family. He estimates he’s knocked on over 5,000 doors this election season and inflation is top of mind with constituents. Regardless of how the race shakes out, Bjorkman says he’s proud of his campaign.
“We live in an amazing place, and I'm really proud of that,” he said. “And all the work that my team's done on this campaign has been really rewarding in and of itself.”
Ruffridge is the incumbent candidate facing a challenge from Gillham. He said he’s spent the final days of his campaign trying to meet voters where they’re at. Energy security and education funding are the issues he says he hears the most about. Both he and Gillham said they waited in line for over an hour to vote early at Soldotna Prep School, which they say indicates strong turnout.
“We're already going to say that it's a success with voter turnout,” he said. “You know, I'll be looking at that obviously. And then, you know, we’re feeling good about the campaign, obviously looking to be ahead on election night, and you know, we're excited to see that.”
Heading into election night, Gillham says he’s not sure what to expect.
“I have no idea – flip a coin,” he said. “The more people that vote, I think my chances are better. But it’s just going to depend on how many people actually get out and vote.”
Poll workers at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex reported high turnout.
Harmony Bolden was helping run the Kalifornsky Beach precinct. At around 1:30 p.m., she said voters had cast more than 475 ballots, representing roughly one in five of the precinct’s total registered voters. She reported steady traffic in and out of the precinct all day.
“This is the presidentials,” she said. “Everybody comes out of the woodwork, for sure. And I mean, we go from 1,200 voters on our presidentials down to maybe four to 800 all other elections.”
Precinct Chair Nancy Eoff was running around, putting out fires as they popped up. One of those fires had to do with literal access to the sports complex.
“There are two doors that are marked handicap accessible with the wheelchair icon, and neither one of the activators works on either door going in or going out,” she said.
Eoff said she checked the doors with her grandson in mind, who uses a wheelchair. They ended up propping one of the doors open, which made some precincts chillier than others. She filled out an incident report for the election board and plans to also take her concerns to the City of Soldotna.
“It is very important to me,” she said. “You know, I want to do a good job. I want people to feel comfortable. I want everybody that needs help to get it for whatever reason.”
Although precincts on Election Day were busy, thousands of Kenai Peninsula residents had already cast ballots before Tuesday.
Alaska Division of Elections data show that, as of Oct. 30, almost 7,000 people in House District 7 and 8 had either voted early or returned an absentee ballot to the division.Those districts cover the Kenai Peninsula north of Tustumena Lake, including Kenai and Soldotna in District 7, and Nikiski, Hope and Cooper Landing in District 8.
When the Alaska Division of Elections’ Kenai office opened Sunday, there was a line of people out the door waiting to vote early. A steady throng streamed in and out of the office in the Old Carrs Mall in the afternoon, seemingly undeterred by the slushy conditions.
Among them were Donna and Arthur Anderson, of the Kalifornsky Beach area. Donna is a local chapter head for Moms for Liberty, a conservative parental rights group, and said it was important to her to vote early.
“I don’t want something to happen on Tuesday – a snowstorm or something – and not be able to come in and vote,” she said. “It was important to me to have my vote count.”
She’s not allowed to endorse state and federal candidates in her capacity as a Moms for Liberty chapter head, but in a personal capacity, she’s supporting a slew of Republicans that include Ben Carpenter for State Senate and Nick Begich for U.S. House. That’s on top of Donald Trump for president.
“He’s the man for the job,” she said. “He’s a businessman. He gets in there, he rolls up his sleeves and he does what needs to be done. And I appreciate that.”
Cody Watkins, of Soldotna, also voted early Sunday. He estimates he waited in line for about 20 minutes before casting his ballot. This year, he’s also supporting Trump.
“I support Trump mainly because of his abortion policy – bringing it back to the states – that was a big reason,” Watkins said. “(It) kind of gave more freedom to everyone.”
Watkins says he didn’t rank any candidates this year and wants to see ranked choice voting go away.
“The other way to think about it for me is that if we have one person to vote for – that’s simple,” he said. “Then there’s no way you can misconstrue that.”
Watkins says he didn’t know what Proposition 1 was before he got to the voting booth, but that the state shouldn’t require businesses to do anything.
“Requiring small business owners to give the 40 hours sick leave is a great idea – but it probably should be out of the hearts of each business owner,” he said. “Because sick leave is important, but also mandating it, you know, can hurt.”
The Alaska Division of Elections will share results on its website once polls close at 8 p.m.
In races where no candidate receives more than 50% of votes, the final results won’t be known until at least Nov. 20. That’s because the state accepts absentee ballots postmarked on election day. Ballots mailed from inside the U.S. are accepted up to 10 days after the election. Ballots mailed from outside the U.S. are accepted up to 15 days after the election.
Some early voted ballots won’t be included in election results shared Tuesday. Early ballots voted on or before Oct. 31 will be counted on election night. Early ballots voted Nov. 1 through 4 will be counted in the week following the election.
