The numbers are not final — that will not happen until the last votes are tallied and ranked-choice tabulations kick in Nov. 23 — but it appears that incumbent elected officials representing Alaska, and Wrangell, will stay on the job for another term.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, state Sen. Bert Stedman and state Rep. Dan Ortiz all appear headed toward re-election.
And while the outcomes are not surprising, what’s interesting is to look at how Wrangell voted the same, or differently, than other precincts in Southeast and across the state. We may be one big state but we do not vote like one big happy family.
For example, Wrangell is solidifying its credentials as one of the more politically conservative precincts in the state. Not the most conservative — that distinction belongs to areas in the Matanuska Valley and Kenai Peninsula. But certainly more conservative than Petersburg, our closest neighbor by miles, and even Ketchikan, which is generally politically aligned with Wrangell.
Whereas as Wrangell voted 50% for Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka in her race for U.S. Senate against Murkowski, the senator polled better than 50% in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.
Several Kenai Peninsula precincts went 70% to 80% for Tshibaka. She also ran up 70% vote totals in some Matanuska Valley precincts.
For governor, Wrangell went 56% for Dunleavy, nothing near the 70% range for some precincts in the Matanuska Valley and Kenai Peninsula. In Southeast, Dunleavy did better in Wrangell than most other precincts, though the governor did break 70% in Coffman Cove. Dunleavy was weakest in southern Southeast in Saxman and Metlakatla. His tally in Petersburg was 43%.
Sarah Palin, in her bid to serve in the U.S. House, collected 40% of the vote in Wrangell, not far behind what the former governor collected in her hometown area of Wasilla. In all of Southeast, Palin only did better in Coffman Cove and Thorne Bay on Prince of Wales Island than in Wrangell.
Turnout in Wrangell, at 35% before all the absentee, early and mail-in ballots are counted, is close to the statewide average of 36%. The community did a lot better than a couple of Alaska precincts with chronic low voter turnouts.
The precincts encompassing military bases in Anchorage and Fairbanks came in among the very lowest voter turnouts in the state. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage recorded a 6.32% turnout among 7,612 registered voters. Eielson in Fairbanks recorded an 8.15% turnout among 2,234 registered voters.
The bases chronically have extremely low voter turnout. Partially, no doubt, because some service men and women are stationed overseas and find it hard to manage mail-in absentee voting. But probably the far larger reason for the embarrassingly anemic turnout is that many of those registered “voters” are signed up only as a proof of residency to continue receiving the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend even after they moved on to their next assignment.
State law allows military members who do not establish legal residency in another state to continue receiving the PFD after they transfer out of Alaska, as long as they maintain ties to the state. Thus, the voter registration.
In 2020, the last year the numbers are available, the Permanent Fund Dividend Division reports several thousand military personnel and their families no longer living in Alaska received a PFD that year.
Just one of the interesting statistics that shows up when you look over voter turnout. Some people read novels, I read voter statistics. Probably a sign that I need to develop another hobby.
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