Anchorage Assembly candidates push to get out the vote in final sprint before election day

In the final sprint to get ballots turned in ahead of election day Tuesday, Anchorage Assembly candidates were door-knocking, phone banking, emailing and sign-waving to squeeze out every last vote in what appear to be four tight races.

Ballots were mailed out in mid-March and must be postmarked by Tuesday. In-person voting centers opened last month and residents have been voting at three locations around the municipality. Ballots can also be dropped off at one of the city’s 18 secure drop boxes.

Five of the Assembly’s 11 seats are being determined, with major implications for the chamber’s agenda and its relationship with Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration. A group of four incumbents is fighting off challenges from conservative candidates backed by passionate activists and donors. A fifth race in the heavily conservative Eagle River/Chugiak district is open, with the current representative opting to retire. Voters are also deciding two school board seats and multiple bond propositions.

By Friday, the elections center had received 34,250 ballots, slightly more than the center had received on the Friday before election day last year during the mayoral election. More are continuing to arrive by mail -- another roughly 2,400 had come in by mail as of Monday afternoon.

The clerk’s office did not yet have estimates for how many had arrived by dropbox or been cast in-person over the weekend and on Monday.

Voters have until 8 p.m. on Tuesday to return their ballots to a dropbox. The clerk’s office said that anyone sending their ballots by mail on Monday and Tuesday should ask a postal worker to hand-cancel, or hand-stamp, their ballot envelopes to ensure they are postmarked on or before election day.

[Here’s what to know about voting in Anchorage’s April election.]

Anchorage residents can vote at the in-person vote centers from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Tuesday. The locations are at City Hall, 632 West 6th Ave., Room #155; Eagle River Town Center, 12001 Business Blvd., Community Room #170; and the Loussac Library, 3600 Denali St., in the Assembly chambers.

Campaigns concerned about turnout

Close campaign watchers say turnout is what will determine the winners. Candidates and campaign managers on Monday said they were focused on efforts to get out the vote.

“If we get a good turnout, then I’ll win,” said John Weddleton, who is running in a competitive contest against challenger Randy Sulte to hold on to his South Anchorage seat for a third term.

But in spite of six years on the Assembly, Weddleton said he had a hard time knowing if residents will return him for three more.

“I don’t know. It’s so hard to tell. There’s clearly been a drumbeat of ‘throw the bums out’ for the last couple years,” he said.

With just over a day left until ballots are due and counting begins, Weddleton was focused on reaching out directly to potential voters through emails and door-knocking.

On the east side of town, first-time candidate Stephanie Taylor was spending the final hours of her campaign phone banking. Though she is optimistic about her chance of winning against incumbent Forrest Dunbar, she said turnout in the district appears pretty low based on ballots returned so far.

“What we’re seeing is about 14 or 15 percent,” Taylor said.

Though her campaign asked supporters to get their ballots in early, she said many people still prefer waiting to vote in-person. Her campaign has spent the runup to Tuesday trying to reach registered voters in a range of different ways, from an aggressive digital ad campaign to door-knocking.

“We’ve been hitting voters every day,” Taylor said. “I get a lot of people who are very passionate about flipping the Assembly, people who are extremely frustrated.”

[New levels of political coordination seen this year in high-stakes Anchorage city races]

During Bronson’s campaign for mayor, he attacked a majority of Assembly members in his messaging to voters, heavily criticizing the Assembly for the city’s COVID-19 restrictions and its decisions on buildings for homelessness services, among other criticisms.

Alaska strategist Jim Lottsfeldt, who works with both Democratic and Republican political campaigns, said he thinks that many of those same issues that helped to galvanize Bronson’s supporters have since subsided since his narrow win over Dunbar last year.

“It feels to me that people are a lot calmer and more forward-looking, and so I feel like that should be good news for the incumbents,” Lottsfeldt said.

For example, Assembly member Meg Zaletel, who is running for reelection in Midtown, handily defeated a recall effort last fall, amid a wave of anger from a vocal group of residents over a temporary mask mandate, he said.

“If the incumbents could hang on then, it seems to me that they’re in a stronger position today than they were a year ago,” Lottsfeldt said.

Assembly member Kameron Perez-Verdia, who is seeking reelection in West Anchorage, said his campaign has focused on door-knocking and talking directly to residents, reminding them to vote.

“I talked to many people yesterday who still had their ballot on their table and then not sent it in yet or dropped it off,” he said. “...I think that because we don’t have a mayoral election or a particular issue that seems like it would normally draw lots of folks out, I am concerned that the voter turnout is going to be low.”

Challengers criticize mail-in voting

Perez-Verdia’s challenger in the district, Liz Vazquez, said the mail-based voting system is a significant departure from how campaigns were waged back when she won a seat representing the area in the Legislature.

“I think it makes it actually more difficult,” Vazquez said. “Too many opportunities for mishaps.”

A number of the Bronson-supported challengers in this year’s election have criticized mail-in voting and said they want to return to in-person voting.

[As election day nears, Anchorage Assembly races see a continued deluge of cash and huge amounts of spending]

Vazquez said one of her concerns is hearing from district residents that they never received their ballots. Her campaign filed a formal complaint with the clerk’s office, though the extent of the problem is unclear.

On Monday, Jones said the clerk’s office is not aware of any widespread issues with registered voters not receiving ballots.

She said any voter who did not receive a ballot at their home had the opportunity to request a replacement ballot, or to apply to vote by fax or email, though both deadlines have passed. Voters who lost a ballot or did not receive one can still vote at the in-person vote centers, she said.

During the mayoral race last year, election officials fell behind in adjudication, a critical part of the ballot counting process, due to a flood of last-minute votes and a high number of questions from election observers, among other issues. That resulted in an unusually low number of ballots included in the first round of preliminary results on election day.

Officials say they do not expect a similarly low ballot count this year for the first round of preliminary election results.

Voters should expect the first batch of results at about 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Election officials say they expect to release updated preliminary election results by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Ballots will continue to trickle in by mail into next week, and officials will update results on Monday, Wednesday and Friday by 5 p.m.

Final vote tallies could change up until the day of vote certification. Ballots from overseas voters that are postmarked on or before election day can be received and counted up until noon on April 26.

The election results are scheduled for official certification at the regular Assembly meeting on April 26.