The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly President and Assembly members may quibble about Mayor Charlie Pierce’s description of the enormous change from in-person voting to mail-in voting as “mandatory.” But there is no question that vote-by-mail elections are now mandatory in the Kenai Peninsula Borough: Voting in person, if allowed, is restricted and inconvenient compared to the past.
For the past 36 years, I was able to show up on election day at my precinct polling place in Kenai, and vote. I personally saw my ballot go into the ballot machine. Easy; nothing more required. I enjoyed joining my fellow citizens in this annual ritual; it made me proud to be an American. When my daughter was a little girl, I took her with me to watch, so that she could learn about the responsibility of being an American citizen. I can still do this for a state election.
However, if I want to vote in person at a borough election, I now have to prove that I am “unable to vote by mail;” and I have to search out and find a “voting center.” At this point, there is no information about where a voting center is, or what the hours will be. We won’t know until three weeks before the election — if we can figure out how to find that information. If I can find and get to a voting center on time, I will have to fill out an application for an absentee ballot first; only then can I get a ballot to vote.
The new mail voting system was rushed through in barely a month during a pandemic, and makes it harder to vote. Mayor Pierce was right to object to it, whatever you call it.
Kristine Schmidt
Kenai
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