Early voters line up in the downstairs corridor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Building in Soldotna on Monday afternoon. Voters were waiting up to 15 minutes at the time to cast their ballots.
Story last updated at 11/4/2008 - 1:06 pm
Voters start early
Alaskans in the Kenai Peninsula Borough have turned out in huge numbers to vote absentee ballots over the past couple of weeks, many no doubt hoping to avoid expected long lines at polling places today.
According to Alyce Houston, elections supervisor for the Region 1 office of the Division of Elections, more than 5,000 people had cast absentee ballots by Sunday in the peninsula's three House districts. Region-wide, the number is over 12,000.
"That's a lot," Houston said.
Broken down by district, some 1,380 ballots had been submitted in District 33, Rep. Kurt Olson's district, 1,825 were cast in Rep. Mike Chenault's District 34, while in District 35, Rep. Paul Seaton's district, another 1,822 had voted absentee. That's a total of 5,027.
"These numbers are going to change," Houston said.
Large numbers of ballots are believed to be in the mail. Absentee ballots received as much as 10 days after the election are valid as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, Houston said.
To get a sense of the volume of absentee balloting, compare the 5,067 ballots already received for the Nov. 4 general election from just the three peninsula districts with the 6,480 absentee ballots cast in the August primary election over the entirety of Region 1, an area that includes Districts 1-5 (Southeast Alaska) and District 33-36 (the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kodiak and the Lake and Peninsula Borough).
As for general election absentee ballots, Region 1 voters have already submitted 12,288, Houston said. Why so many?
"It's the nature of the election," nationally and locally, Houston said. "It's been constant."
Absentee ballots are not counted until 10 days after Election Day, so it is conceivable that the outcomes of some close statewide and local races may not be known by tonight.
Those voting today should anticipate long lines.
"We expect a very busy day," Houston said. "We just ask people to be patient at the polling places."
The division tried to provide as many voting booths in each polling place as would conveniently fit, but with the turnout expected to be large, voters may have to wait, Houston said.
Hal Spence can be reached at hspence@ptialaska.net
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