Sitka’s municipal election is Tuesday (10-6-20). Early voter turnout is more than triple last year’s count, meaning that Sitkans likely won’t have a good idea of who won until Wednesday afternoon, at the earliest.
Earlier this year, as the coronavirus pandemic grew in scope, Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson started to wonder how it might affect Sitka’s municipal election, which she spearheads.
“Back in March I kind of wondered what the election might look like and how that was all going to come together,” she said. “Ultimately I decided for a couple of reasons just to keep things as is. I felt like we were all kind of shook around like a snowglobe this year with things changing by the day, so I just tried to keep things normal for folks this year.”
As usual, there were many ways to vote early in Sitka’s local election this year. Voters could vote early by mail and by fax. And polls have been open to early in-person voting for the past two weeks at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
Voters heading to the polls on election day can expect plenty of safety measures in place. Booths will be spaced at six feet, and poll workers will follow a regular sanitizing and disinfecting routine. Masks and gloves will be available. Masks are encouraged, but not required.
And while safer polls may have added some logistical challenges across the country, Peterson said in some ways, the local election will be more accessible this year, due to a new piece of equipment.
“It’s an accessible unit that provides assistance for folks who may be visually impaired. Maybe if they need a larger font it’s great,” she said. “It’s just like a touch screen…you can mark your voting selections and at the end it will print your ballot. There’s also another option where you can be read the ballot, so that’s a nice feature as well.”
While the city is prepared for folks to turn out on election day, Peterson says Sitkans took advantage of the early voting options, perhaps more than ever before.
“We’ve had a huge turnout for advanced in person voting. We’ve been averaging about 100 people a day for in-person voting,” she said. “I was trying to decrease the crowd volume on election day, so I’m really happy that we’ve had such a great turnout for advanced voting.”
As of Friday evening (10-2-20), just over 1400 people had voted early, most of them in person. That’s more than half of the total voter turnout in last year’s municipal election. Peterson said numbers like these are unprecedented.
For the 2019 municipal election, we had a total of 411 people [vote early]–38 by mail and 342 in person,” she said. “In 2018, with a mayoral race and two props, two assembly seats, two school board seats, we had a total of 561 people who took advantage of the absentee options. This year we’re probably going to be three times that number.”
But here’s the thing…early in-person votes are treated just like mail-in absentee ballots. They aren’t counted the night of the election. Usually Peterson counts absentee ballots on the Friday after the election, but she knew this year, that wasn’t going to fly.
“I decided months ago…there’s going to be so much interest, and it’s going to be completely different turnout for each of these voting options,” she said. “So we’re going to start counting absentee on Wednesday the seventh, and we will process as much as we can that day. We’re going to start at noon.”
There are 13 candidates running for public office this year, including two vying for the mayor’s chair, three for two seats on the school board, and eight running for two open assembly seats. And those races, in a normal year, can be pretty tight. In 2018, for example, assembly member Valorie Nelson beat the third place candidate, Brinnen Carter, by just 28 votes.
This means we likely won’t know who won until Wednesday evening, at the earliest. Peterson said she hopes they’ll get through counting most of the early votes on Wednesday. Any remaining absentee ballots will be processed on Friday.
Editor’s Note: Sitka’s municipal election is Tuesday (10-6-20). You can vote at Harrigan Centennial Hall beginning at 7 a.m. Polls close at 8 p.m. Beginning at 8 p.m., Raven Radio will broadcast live election returns. Electioneering is not allowed within 200 feet of a polling place. For more information on the local election, visit the city’s election page.
