At least two polling stations in rural Alaska opened late for the Tuesday statewide primary election, the Alaska Division of Elections confirmed late Tuesday, and observers independently reported other sites also opened late.
The problem was most acute in the southwestern village of Nunapitchuk, where bad weather grounded flights and kept elections workers from opening a polling place until 5 p.m. That gave local voters only three hours to vote before the scheduled 8 p.m. close.
Nunapitchuk has 343 registered voters, mostly independents.
In the North Slope village of Point Lay, polls opened at 8 a.m., one hour later than scheduled.
Michelle Sparck is director of Get Out The Native Vote and has been working for months to help recruit local poll workers.
Late Tuesday, she said polls in the North Slope village of Wainwright didn’t open until 4 p.m. due to staffing issues, and Anaktuvuk Pass in the central Brooks Range had similar problems, with the city mayor temporarily stepping in.
The Division of Elections did not respond to a question seeking to verify Sparck’s report.
Tuesday’s issues followed a warning from the Alaska Federation of Natives and other groups.
The groups issued a public letter saying they were “deeply concerned by reports of significant vacancies among election workers in rural Alaska precincts, as well as reports that some election workers have waited for months to receive per diem following required election training.”
The letter called for the Division of Elections to take additional steps to ensure that rural polling locations were open on time before the primary.
Earlier this year, the Alaska Legislature passed a bipartisan, bicameral election reform bill that would have mandated some actions to improve rural voting access.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed that bill, and the Legislature failed to override the veto after two Republicans from Southeast Alaska reversed themselves and voted to sustain the veto after voting to pass the bill.
Even with late openings in places across the state, the Division of Elections appeared to perform better in rural Alaska than it did in the 2024 and 2022 primaries.
Two years ago, polling stations failed to open at all in Wales and Kaktovik for the primary election, and polling places in several other locations failed to open on time.
In 2022, polling places in the southwest villages of Tununak and Atmautluak failed to open for the primary election, and a lack of poll workers meant two other communities could only vote by absentee ballot.
