Be a citizen, not a cynic: Cast your vote

It is easy to be cynical about government and bureaucracy, and question whether voting matters.  Yet voting is one of the most important tools citizens have to shape the future of our city.

This year, voters in Anchorage choose candidates for Assembly, school board, and service area board members, and vote on ballot propositions.  The ballot propositions authorize expansion of the Anchorage parks service area; authorize bonds for schools, roads, parks, transit/public safety, police and fire; and the ballot includes a referendum to repeal a late-2016 taxi ordinance.

[Early voting for Anchorage city election]

In addition, voters in precincts in Girdwood and on the Turnagain Arm will vote in Concurrent Special Elections on propositions to expand the Girdwood Service Area and create the Turnagain Arm Police Service Area, respectively.

The effects of voter decisions to approve bonds for schools and parks and roads and police and fire — as well as the decisions about who serves on our Assembly and school board — will be felt in our community in the near future, as well as for years to come.

[2017 Anchorage city election; here's what's on the ballot]

The bonds on the ballot will have an impact in only a few weeks — whether design and construction on schools or roads or parks happens this summer or not.  The candidates on the ballot will have an impact in less than a few weeks — new Assembly members are sworn in on April 18 and vote on important issues at their first meeting on April 25.

Anchorage voters can vote in person on Election Day — Tuesday, April 4 — at precinct polling locations, at the Loussac Library, at City Hall, at the UAA Student Union, or at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Go to www.muni.org/elections for more information, or to study the issues on ballot on the League of Women Voters' Ballot Review.  And – remember to vote Tuesday, April 4, in the regular municipal election.

Barbara A. Jones is the municipal clerk for Anchorage. 

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