The Kenai Peninsula is gearing up to hit the polls tomorrow. Multiple seats are up for grabs for the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education, Homer City Council, Kenai City Council, Seldovia City Council, Seward City Council, Soldotna City Council, and several Service Area Board seats.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Clerk Johni Blankenship told KSRM:
“I’m anticipating a steady turnout. There’s not a lot of contention on the ballot this year for the Borough, but the cities have some races. I’m expecting a fairly decent turnout.”
What’s different this year is that the Borough has new ADA compliant voting systems. Blankenship said:
“We have the voting tablet, which is basically a ballot marking device, which assists those voters that may need some additional assistance for visually impaired, is the main one, but obviously that needs assistance can use it. It has a hearing device with it. It also has an ATI device, which helps with them making their selections on the ballot and it’s got a braille device. It meets all the ADA compliant standards.”
For those who might be concerned regarding the integrity of the voting equipment, Blankenship says:
“The Assembly this year did add another layer of security measures to the Code of Ordinances, which, most of them we were already doing, but they went ahead and codified those. We also added an additional layer where we took the server that holds all of our election equipment and it’s in its own separate space now. It’s air gapped. It’s under lock and key. Of course, it’s password protected. All of the ballots have been secured and there’s just an extra layer of security throughout the whole process. Everything’s secure, however everything is also very transparent. We have installed windows everywhere so people can actually see what’s happening. They can come watch. It’s a very public process if people are interested in observing that.”
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The Kenai Peninsula Borough did confirm to KSRM that they are handling the municipal local election results and will publish them as quickly as they come in. Also, polls open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 8:00 p.m. and there absentee voting stations throughout the Kenai Peninsula Borough if you can’t make it to your polling location.