Polls are open until 8 p.m. today in Alaska for our statewide primary election. In the Interior, House Districts 1 – 6, and 9 all have elections today as well as Senate District B.
A lot of primary races are uncontested in either Democrat or Republican parties. Some have independents who will be on the general election ballot in November.
In Senate District B, the big curving district that starts south of and ends west of Fairbanks, incumbent John Coghill is facing challenger Robert Myers of North Pole in the Republican primary. The winner will face two independents, Marna Sanford and Evan Eads in the general election in November.
Downtown Fairbanks House District 1 has no race on the Republican side where Bart LeBon is the incumbent. He will face the winner of the Democratic race between Christopher Quist and Bennie Colbert.
East side Fairbanks House District 2 has Democrat Jeremiah Youmans running unopposed; he will face the winner of the Republican race between incumbent Steve Thompson and challenger Dave Selle.
No one is running against Mike Prax in the Republican Primary for the largely North Pole House District 3. Prax was appointed to replace Tammie Wilson when she resigned her legislative seat to take a position with Alaska’s Office of Children’s Services. And no Democrat qualified for that primary race. Christina Sinclair did not have financial disclosure documents filed in time to be certified on the primary election ballot.
Democrat Grier Hopkins and Republican Keith Kurber are unopposed in their primary races for House District 4, northwest of Fairbanks.
In House District 5, southwest of Fairbanks, Republican Keven McKinley faces the winner of the the Democratic primary race between incumbent Adam Wool and challenger Taryn Hughes of Fairbanks.
The giant, upside-down “J” of House District 6 has the most candidates for the seat left vacant when Republican Dave Talerico of Healy retired. It has a contentious primary among three Republicans: Julie Morris of Anderson, Ryan Smith of Fairbanks, and Mike Cronk of Tok. The winner will face Julia Hnilicka of Nenana, who is running unopposed as a Democrat, as well as two, and possibly three non-affiliated candidates.
Elijah Verhagen of Nenana and Vernon Carlson of Cantwell are both certified for the general election, and Deborah Riley of Gakona may get certified if she gets enough signatures by today’s deadline.
In House District 9, two Republicans, Incumbent George Rauscher of Sutton and Lucas Howard of Palmer are facing off today. The winner will be on the November ballot with Democrat Bill Johnson of Delta.
A lot of Alaskans chose to vote early or absentee to avoid crowded polling places on election day. If you voted at a regional elections office before last Thursday, your vote will get counted tonight.
If you voted Friday, Saturday, Sunday or yesterday, your ballot will be counted seven days after Election Day. That is also when absentee ballots will be counted.
And absentee ballots have started to come in. Statewide, 61898 absentee ballots were sent to voters by the Division of Elections and as of yesterday morning, 29754 have been logged back in by the Division. They are coming by mail, fax, or online.
Absentee ballots must be faxed in or submitted online by today, and those getting mailed back must be postmarked by today, August 18. If a voter applied for an absentee ballot, but did not get sent one, the voter can look up their status on the Division of Elections website under “my voter information.”
Those won’t get counted for another week, and might make the difference in close elections.
All absentee ballots must be counted no later than 10 days after the date of the primary election and 15 days after the general election and all other state conducted elections. Regional elections offices begin counting questioned ballots seven days after Election Day. All questioned ballots must be counted no later than 10 days after the date of the primary election and 15 days after the general election and all other state-conducted elections.