Several Alaska Native groups say the constitutional rights of rural voters are in jeopardy. The Alaska Federation of Natives, the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, the First Alaskans Institute and Get Out the Native Vote are sounding an alarm over staffing shortages at Alaska Division of Election offices and polling stations that serve rural Alaskans.
In a statement on Monday, AFN said it was deeply concerned by reports about election worker vacancies in rural precincts, as well as accounts from workers, who say they’ve waited for months to receive the per diem they were promised upon completion of their required training.
Kendra Kloster, AFN’s director of government relations, pointed to the Division of Elections Region IV office in Nome, which did not open at the advertised time for the start of early voting.
“When you advertise when you’re going to be open, that’s when they should be open and available,” Kloster said. “When people are going in with their expectation to vote, they take time out of their day, they show up. And when the office isn’t open when they say they are, I think that is a big deal.”
Kloster says the Nome incident is just the latest example of chronic problems that rural voters face. She says unequal treatment from the Division of Elections has persisted for years.
“It shouldn’t be. We should be treated just the same in every community to ensure that early voting is available in every community just like in urban places. It should be the same, and it just is not,” Kloster said.
AFN and other groups say some of these problems could have been addressed had Gov. Mike Dunleavy not vetoed Senate Bill 64. Dunleavy said he rejected the measure because it needed more work, and there wasn’t enough time to put it in place before this year’s election.
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, an Anchorage Democrat, was one of the supporters of the bi-partisan bill, aimed at improving statewide voter access and election integrity.
He says some of the bill's provisions could have been implemented right away, like the one that would have created a rural elections coordinator to oversee the improvements.
Wielechowski says if urban Alaskans found a Division of Elections office closed when it was supposed to be open for early voting, people would get upset.
“There would be letters to the editor. There would be social media outrage. Yes, 100 percent,” Wielechowski said, “and there would be immediate action taken.”
Wielechowski says he’s glad to hear AFN and other groups speak out, because rural voters have been silent far too long.
“If you’re making it impossible for people to vote, you’re not opening polling places, then are you really granting them their constitutional right to vote?” Wielechowski said. “A court would probably say you’re not.”
AFN has sent a letter to the Division of Elections, and sent the following list of issues, calling for immediate action.
- Provide a current, publicly available accounting of election-worker vacancies by region and precinct, particularly in rural Alaska.
- Identify how each vacant position will be filled before the August 18 Primary.
- Provide contingency plans for any precinct that cannot be fully staffed.
- Ensure election workers who have completed required training receive all outstanding per diem and reimbursements without further delay.
- Communicate directly and promptly with election workers about the status of their payments.
- Confirm that required language assistance and voter assistance will be available in communities where it is needed.
- Provide the public with clear information about how staffing shortages will be addressed without compromising the integrity, accessibility, or security of the election.
- Ensure that every advertised early voting location is open and operational during all published voting hours, and establish a clear process for immediately notifying voters and the public when an unexpected closure or delay occurs.
Stephen Kirch, a spokesman for the Division of Elections, says the Division has no comment at this time on AFN’s letter. Kirch said all precincts in Nome’s Region IV were open election day – except for two that were closed after floods from Typhoon Halong. He said the division was close to opening one other precinct in the Southwest village of Nunapitchuk on Tuesday afternoon. Kirch said the Division was able to open polls in the North Slope community of Nuiqsut, which had been closed on election morning.
