The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly voted 6-3 to pass an ordinance that would allow for borough-wide vote by mail elections in a hybrid structure with broad use of by-mail voting and limited options for early in-person voting during borough elections.
The hybrid structure means that voting will take place via mail-in ballots alongside traditional voting at polling places.
The issue of ordinance 2020-24 was set to be decided during Tuesday night’s assembly meeting, but as the clock struck midnight, the assembly called a recess before the vote by mail issue was decided. A plan was made for the assembly reconvene at noon on Wednesday to finish discussion and make final decisions on how residents in the borough will vote in upcoming elections.
Assembly member Norm Blakeley proposed an amendment to the ordinance asking that the issue be put on a ballot for a vote by the people: “The best way for this to be figured out, and the most equitable way, is the let the voters vote on it. That’s really why I think I was voted in here. It’s to represent the people so they could represent themselves when things like this come by.”
That amendment was defeated by a 6-3 vote. The same 6-3 vote ultimately passed ordinance 2020-24: assembly members Kenn Carpenter, Norm Blakeley, and Jesse Bjorkman voted against the ordinance. Tyson Cox, Wille Dunn, Brent Johnson, Brent Hibbert, Hal Smalley, and Kelly Cooper all voted against to pass the ordinance.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough’s election stakeholder group, which was tasked with making voting easier and more accessible, endorsed a similar hybrid solution in a report last year.