Sitka Precincts 'Busy' In National Election

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Category: News

Created on Tuesday, 05 November 2024 15:18

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Lines of voters moved at an orderly pace through the process of casting ballots at Centennial Hall this morning, their numbers indicating high local interest in the election of a president and vice president, and an Alaskan to the U.S. House of Representatives. Only one candidate is running for the state House District 2 seat.
    Two voter initiative questions, one that would establish a state minimum wage and the other proposing repeal of Alaska’s ranked choice voting, also are on the ballot.

    Sitka Music Festival artistic director Zuill Bailey plays cello this afternoon in the lobby of Harrigan Centennial Hall as voters and children, including one-year-old Lyla Miller, right, with her mother, Kamilia Burks, file in. Bailey performed for about an hour as scores of Sitkans cast ballots. Both Sitka precincts are in Harrigan Centennial Hall, and will be open till 8 p.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

   “Busy,” was the one word used by Precinct 2 co chair Dorothy Orbison at 10 a.m. to describe the activity in the separate rooms for Precincts 1 and 2 to cast ballots.
    Polls opened today at 7 a.m. and by noon a total of 773 Sitkans had cast ballots in the election day voting, which are in addition to the more than 1,800 votes received in the Oct. 21-Nov. 4 early in-person voting. The polls will be open for voting today until 8 p.m.
“There’s still time to vote,” said Precinct 1 Chair Alix Snelling. “The presidential election is one of the few elections where you can come in, and you can register and vote on the same day.”
At noon today each of the precincts at Centennial Hall had short lines, but election officials kept the traffic flowing, and voters took very little time in marking their ballots. A total of 413 had voted in Precinct 1 and 360 in Precinct 2 in the first five hours of voting.
In the ranked choice voting for president, Alaska voters have eight choices, and for Alaska’s single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives they have four. In the race to represent Sitka in the Alaska House of Representatives, incumbent Rebecca Himschoot, a nonpartisan candidate, is the sole candidate on the ballot.
The ballot questions in the state election ask whether Alaskans want to increase the minimum hourly wage to $13 in 2025, $14 in 2026, and $15 in 2027. In ballot question 2, Alaskans are asked whether they want to repeal ranked choice voting in favor of restoring Alaska’s previous system of political party primaries, and single choice general elections.
    Ranked choice voting has been in place since 2022, following voter adoption of the initiative petition measure in the 2020 election.
    Also on the ballot are yes-or-no questions on the retention of two Supreme Court justices, two Court of Appeals judges and a judge from the first judicial district.
Rebecca Himschoot, who is unopposed for her second term in the state House, said she was spending election day running errands and “stress baking” while preparing for a work trip to Anchorage to meet with newly elected representatives in preparation of the legislative session starting in January.
In the upcoming days she also plans to attend the annual meeting of the Association of Alaska School Boards in Anchorage, a conference in Fairbanks on invasive species, and a meeting of the Legislative Seafood Task Force in Anchorage before returning home for the Alaska Public Safety Academy graduation on Nov. 15.
“I’m incredibly grateful that I get to do this, and I’m lucky I get to serve as the representative of House District 2,” Himschoot said this afternoon. “And that we have a really engaged electorate, which shows in Sitka’s successes. We’re a high functioning little community.”
She said while her focus is on local and statewide issues, she’s concerned that no matter what the outcome is on the presidential election, “half of our country is going to feel like the world is ending.”
“It feels that dire,” she said. “(But) I look at all the things we’re able to do in this little town and I feel hope in that.
“I look at the many successes of our schools and students, the way our community members make an effort to get along with each other. On the local level, the national impacts are diminished because we are well grounded and believe in each other. In Sitka we don’t see each other as who’s voting which way, we see each other as someone who volunteers on the football team, or helps repair trails, or leads the quilt group. We see each other as community members.”