All votes should be counted in timely way

The irony of so-called "early voting" in Alaska is that if you voted early, your ballot was one of the last votes counted. These ballots are basically set aside, sometimes for weeks, before they are verified and counted.

It took more than two weeks before Alaska's Division of Elections counted enough votes to establish Mark Begich as the winner of the U.S. Senate race. Nearly one-third of Alaskans voted early or voted absentee in this year's election.

The Division of Elections suggests that they have to separate early and absentee votes from the rest to avoid voter fraud. But nearly every other state in the union has found a solution to this problem that ensures timely and accurate vote counting.

We can look to our neighbors in Washington for a simple solution. In 2002, Washington, recognizing the overwhelming trend toward early and absentee voting, passed legislation to create a very simple online, statewide voter database.

Elections workers use this database to mark which citizens have voted as the ballots are received. The database is Internet-based and updated in real time, and deceased voters and felons are removed from the database every month.

By the time election day rolls around, every precinct has an up-to-date list of who has voted and who has not. If someone shows up to vote who has already cast a ballot, they can vote in person and have their absentee ballot thrown out. If they do not believe they voted absentee, they are allowed to vote a questioned ballot while election officials investigate.

This system allows Washington to have about 99 percent of their votes counted at the end of election day. Their citizens didn't have to wait two weeks to get a statewide vote tally for the first time.

If this continues, Alaska will be discouraging the very option that has produced such high voter turnout over the past few election cycles. Alaskans are going to begin to reconsider showing up to vote early and sending in absentee ballots if they know their votes may not be counted until most races have already been decided.

The ability of Alaska citizens to cast a ballot that will be counted in a timely and accurate manner lies at the heart of our democracy and must be guarded carefully. Call your representatives and ask them to modernize our election system and move Alaska into the 21st century.

Gabe Aceves is the executive director of the Alaska Public Interest Research Group in Anchorage.