By Therese Lewandowski
Your Special Primary mail-in ballot needs to be mailed no later than June 11. It is recommended people have their ballot post-marked. You may want to note the hours your local post office is open on June 11, which is a Saturday. If you did not receive your ballot or you make a mistake on the one you have, call the State Elections office at 907-465-3021 or 866-948-8683.
Voters are encouraged to do homework before casting a vote. Take the time to research and consider making your choice based on the issues important to you and on the candidate’s leadership qualities. For this election, think about what a U.S. representative in Washington, D.C., can do for the people of Alaska. Do you believe they should be good communicators, knowledgeable about legislative issues concerning this state and able to discourse reasonable with other legislators from diverse parties and opinions?
Here are some links and sources where you can research candidates: The state website has the list of candidates, their websites and emails at elections.alaska.gov. A business forum hosted by Alaska industry groups was held May 12 with nine candidates; this is available on YouTube. The League of Women Voters of Alaska published a Voter’s Guide to Candidate Responses you can read at lwv.org. Anchorage Daily News published a Q&A article on May 3 with a link to candidate responses to three questions. Alaska Public Radio did a candidate survey that can be found at alaskapublic.org/news/candidate-surveys/.
With all this information it may be a good idea to make a report card of sorts for yourself. The top bar could list your favored candidates. The side vertical bar could list your issues and candidate qualities. Work across the card and give a grade to how well the candidate meets your issues and qualifications.
We believe an informed voter best serves our communities. Regardless of how you choose a candidate it is important to remember all votes count and all voices matter.
Therese Lewandowski is a member of Kenai Peninsula Votes.
