Early voting in place for Oct. 1 municipal election

Too busy to vote? That’s now less of an excuse.

Early voting, in addition to voting by email, was unanimously approved by the borough assembly last month. The ordinance only affects municipal elections, not state elections. It will take effect for the borough election on Oct. 1. Both vote-by-email and early voting are just as secure as traditional election day voting.

Early voting opens 15 days before an election and takes place in Borough Clerk Kim Lane’s office at City Hall. Voters need only to provide a form of identification, sign their name on the official voter register, and check off the boxes on the ballot, Lane wrote to the assembly.

Voters even get to place their ballots in the tabulator, just like traditional election day voting.

The borough has permitted early voting in the past, but the process tended to be more difficult for both voters and vote counters. Voters needed to go through more steps to early vote, including filling out an absentee ballot oath.

On the borough’s side of things, officials were not permitted to process votes until election day. Now, however, the tabulator will begin to formulate vote tallies as soon as the first early vote is received, though those numbers will be kept in the machines until polls close.

Lane will update the official voter register to ensure no one can vote again on election day if they’ve already cast an early voting ballot.

In addition to Lane’s anti-fraud measures, national data proves that early voting does not bring with it a greater chance of voter fraud.

In 2023, Politico delved into the midterm election data from Vermont, Kentucky and Nevada — three states that recently expanded voting accessibility to include early voting. The states’ early voting “did not lead to voter fraud, nor did it seem to advantage Republicans or Democrats,” according to Jessica Piper, a Politico reporter

The borough hopes the newly adopted vote-by-email option will be a modern step up from the previous fax machine voting method. The process of voting by email will not differ from the fax machine process. The only difference is the method of delivery. Voters can request an electronic ballot, fill it out online, and email it back to the borough, all without ever leaving their house.

In recent elections, Wrangell’s voter turnout has been as high as 40% and as low as 20%, Lane said. She hopes these new processes will allow more people to vote in local elections.

Early voting, according to Lane, is already common across the state. Fairbanks, Sitka, Anchorage, Kodiak Island Borough and Bethel have already adopted early voting measures, as has the state of Alaska.

“Election time is so exciting. I am very happy to be able to evolve and change with the times and also, with the voters’ needs,” Lane wrote.