While thousands of Kenai Peninsula voters prepare to take to the polls on Tuesday, some voting has already been underway. Absentee in-person voting for the Oct. 4 municipal election started on Sept. 19, and election officials in Kenai say they’ve had a steady stream of voters.

Carol Freas was running Kenai’s absentee in-person polling location on Thursday. She’s a former Kenai City Clerk — the city official who runs elections — and said the number of voters who have shown up to the city hall polling location ebbs and flows. As of Tuesday at around 10 a.m., Freas said more than 110 voters had already cast ballots, which she described as “good for here.”

Most people who vote absentee in person, Freas said, are voters who will not be able to vote on election day, such as in the case of people who are traveling or college students returning to school.

“It’s a service people appreciate,” Freas said.

Absentee in-person voting has been made available across the borough, including in Soldotna and Homer. Kenai City Hall’s polling location had sample ballots for various precincts fanned out on one table, as well as machines that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those machines are new to the borough as of last year.

Freas said she’ll also be staffing the Kenai No. 1 precinct on Tuesday — located at the Kenai Mall — for the duration of election day. Polls on Tuesday will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters in line to vote when polls closed will still be allowed to cast a ballot.

Sample ballots are displayed ahead of the Oct. 4 municipal election at an absentee in-person polling place in Kenai City Hall on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022 in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)

Carol Freas (right) helps a voter fill out absentee election materials in Kenai City Hall ahead of the Oct. 4 municipal election on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022 in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)