The Anchorage League of Women Voters wishes to acknowledge and thank Anchorage Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones and the entire team at the Anchorage clerk’s office for a well-planned and professionally executed municipal vote-by-mail election in the midst of a global pandemic.
Anchorage voters were lucky to already have a vote-by-mail system, and it did not happen overnight. Meticulous work has been done over the past few years to build, prove out and protect our vote-by-mail system. As 232,000 ballot packets were being prepared in early March and COVID-19 was taking hold in the U.S., some people called to postpone the election. However, our city was well-positioned to handle ballots and everything went ahead as planned.
More than 71,300 Anchorage voters mailed in or delivered their ballots to free neighborhood drop boxes during the quarantine time. This is impressive. More than 30% of our voters participated in a vote-by-mail system that is still new and had some unique aspects this year, such as a two-page ballot and a 70-cent postage requirement for mailing. Since the League of Women Voters is a group supporting voter access and fairness, we tracked all of these items and were happy to learn how the clerk’s office handled every aspect.
Because of COVID-19 social distancing and other health precautions, the municipal election team had to use fewer election workers to process ballots in a year when turnout was higher than usual. Our members were impressed with those working to get the job done and grateful for the continued texts and updates on the website and by email. Further, when we raised questions and concerns, Barbara Jones and her team answered our inquiries quickly and efficiently and we were able to pass information on to concerned voters.
We thank the Assembly members and city leaders who made vote-by-mail possible and commend the municipality for conducting an election during a crisis. We see the value of vote-by-mail and hope other entities such as the state of Alaska consider this system for future safe, secure, accessible elections.
— Margaret E. McDonagh
Outgoing President, League of Women Voters of Anchorage
Anchorage
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