The Alaska Democratic Party has cancelled their primary vote at polling places scheduled for Saturday, April 4, to instead using an all-mail primary. The ballots must be received by no later than April 10 to be valid. That is not a postmarked-by date, it is the date the ballots must be received by. The change was made to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
The Party is using ranked-choice voting for the first time in a Presidential primary. This offers voters the ability to rank candidates in order of most-desired to least, rather than the traditional method of caucusing.
Lindsay Kavanaugh, Executive Director of the Alaska Democratic Party: “It is the first time that it has ever been done, and you probably know that in the past, determining Presidential preference – so let’s clarify that this is for Presidential preference among Democratic nominees – this is in lieu of a caucus. So, essentially, we’re using a paper ballot with ranked-choice voting, and ranked-choice voting mirrors the caucus fan out, if you will. The reason we’re doing this is because of the problem of traditional caucuses, accessibility, overcrowding, and I think you know that in 2016, several caucus locations across the state were actually shut down. So, we want to give every registered Democrat an opportunity to participate. This is all about increasing voter turnout.”
Ms. Kavanaugh also says that results will be tabulated and announced on a set date and time, despite the COVID-19-related changes: “Tabulations will occur on April 10, with results no later than April 11 at 11:59 p.m. And that date is moved; originally, we were going to tabulate on April 4, and we also had in-person polling locations, but again, due to COVID-19, we’ve extended the vote-by-mail program and extended the tabulation date to April 10.”
Ballots can be downloaded on the Alaska Democratic Party website, and the Party advises all potential voters visit myvoterinformation.alaska.gov to ensure they are officially registered as Democrats, and that they have access to a printer to print the mail-in ballot. The Party claims to have already mailed over 70,000 ballots to Alaska Democrats, and for those who have already received ballots, note that the deadline is April 4, rather than the March 25 date that was included in that mailing.
Alaska Democrats are not alone in delaying Saturday’s vote, as Hawaii and Wyoming also had scheduled April 4 primaries. Both states have also opted to utilize mail-in voting with extended deadlines, similar to Alaska.
