JUNEAU (AP) — State election officials on March 22 announced plans for a June 11 special primary and an Aug. 16 special election to fill the U.S. House seat left vacant with the death of Alaska Rep. Don Young.
The winner would serve the remainder of Young’s term, which ends in January.
Another election would be held in November to fill the next full two-year term in Congress, which will start in January.
Officials are planning for the special primary to be conducted by mail given the short timeline to hold the election, said Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer, who oversees elections in the state. State law allows for an election by mail in certain circumstances, and Meyer said it was his decision to go that route with the special primary.
This will be the first statewide by-mail election, said Gail Fenumiai, director of the Division of Elections.
Given the short notice, a possible shortage of poll workers and logistics issues, there was no other option than to conduct the election by mail, Fenumiai said.
Each ballot for the special primary election will come with a prepaid return postage stamp. Voters will need to sign their ballot and also have a witness sign it. The voter must also provide a “numerical identifier,” such as their date of birth, Alaska driver’s license number, or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
Candidates for the special election must register by 5 p.m. Friday. The first ballots will be mailed to overseas voters starting April 27.
“We have a lot of challenges this year. It’s probably the toughest year that I know of, to have an election,” Meyer said.
The special election in August for the House seat will be held on the same day as the regular statewide primary election for governor and the Legislature.
The special election to fill the House vacancy will be the first in Alaska conducted under a new process approved by voters in 2020. That means the top four vote-getters in the June special primary, regardless of party, will advance to the special election in which ranked choice voting will be used. It will be the same process for the regular election.
After getting past the primary, if a candidate has the majority of the first-preference votes in the general election, they win. If not, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. The votes for the losing candidate go to those voters’ second choices. If one of the three remaining candidates has more than half the votes, they win. If not, the process repeats until there are only two candidates, and the one with the most votes wins.
Young, who died March 18, had held Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat since 1973.
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