Talk of The Rock: Demystifying the Election

Alise Rice, Kodiak Island Borough Clerk, joined KMXT reporter Dylan Simard to discuss elections, voting, and what exactly people mean when they say “absentee-in-person” voting and “early voting.”

Dylan Simard: 

 

Well, thank you for joining us for today’s talk of the rock. With me today is Alise rice clerk for the Kodiak Island Borough, how are you doing today?

 

Alise Rice: 

 

Good. Thank you.

 

Dylan Simard: 

 

So to start off, what are all the different types of voting available in Kodiak?

 

Alise Rice:

 

So right now what we have is absentee in-person voting, which is… your vote your ballot will be counted after the day of the election. There is what is occurring, early voting, but early voting is for our larger municipalities. So when you see the term early voting, what’s happening is people are getting confused. Because yes, early is you’re going in before the day of the election. But that doesn’t mean that you’re voting your ballot through the machine that it will be immediately counted. So what we’re doing is you’re coming in before the day of the election, you’re voting absentee in person ballots, it goes to the canvassing team, and it’s counted by hand, and they have the State House within 15 days to tally all of those hand-count ballots– all of the hand count ballots that come in.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So where do the votes go for these different types of elections? Or for- sorry- for these different types of voting methods? Are they counted here on the island? Are they counted in Juneau?

 

Alise Rice: 

 

Right. So what occurs is for us right now, if you want to come before the day of the election, is the absentee in-person ballots, and those are collected at the end of the night, and they’re immediately sent to Juneau. So they don’t stay here with us. If you’ve come in that day, your ballot is immediately sent to Juneau.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So what are they doing in the villages for voting?

 

Alise Rice: 

My understanding with the villages are they are going to have their polling precinct site opened on the day of the election, they are doing the very same thing. I have not clarified if they’re doing absentee in person, my assumption would be yes, but I don’t know for certain I’ve been handling what we have here.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So for these different methods of voting, why might somebody prefer one over the other.

 

Alise Rice:

 

So the advantage of coming in and voting the absentee in person is that you will not need to go to the poll on the day of the election, whether you have health concerns, whether you will not actually physically be here to come in and vote at the poll, it’s an option that the state have a lot of them, you have to have a– it’s required to provide something why you can’t be there. Here, we don’t have that. So whether you’re going to be here or not, or if you have a health risk, or you’re just concerned or you just want to come in early, you can come in in early vote or absentee in person before the election.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So for what’s the situation then with early voting here on Kodiak?

 

Alise Rice:

 

So we don’t really have the term that the state of Alaska is using for early voting. Because we are a small municipality, we’re not a large municipality, the large municipalities are doing what is termed by the state of Alaska, the early voting, that’s when you are going to go in, you’re going to vote, you’re going to run it through the machine, and it will automatically count your vote for you. And it’ll count towards the– on that day of the election. So it’s not like the hand count where your count comes in later.

 

Dylan Simard: 

 

So in that case, then if you wanted to vote in person early and get your ballot tallied the day of the election, while voting before that day, you would have to leave the island and go to a larger municipality?

 

Alise Rice:

 

That’s correct.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

Okay.  So do you tell people who vote absentee that their ballot will be counted after the day of the election?

 

Alise Rice:

 

Yes. Once we understood that there was a lot of confusion occurring, when you’re greeted at the doors through the borough, we indicate where you go to vote and once you’re greeted there, the election officials are asking you “Are you here to vote absentee in person today?” Or “are you wanting to vote early” for early voting and then sometimes they want to vote the absentee-in-person, or they’ll get that look “Oh, what’s the difference here?” And then we explain to them in detail, you know, “this is how your ballot is going to be counted. It’s not going to be until after the day of the election.” And they have the option to decide, yes, okay, that I’m comfortable with that. Or some say, “no, I really want for my vote to be counted on the day of election. I don’t want it to be hand counted.” And they’ll choose to go to their polling precinct site on the day of the election, which is Tuesday.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So I mean, the elections are tough, right? They’re complicated, often they’re contentious.  I know that the radio station has been getting calls with people asking questions. So what are some of the questions and some of the complaints that you guys have been getting?

 

Alise Rice:

 

So we’re getting a lot of confused voters calling and saying, “I don’t understand I thought this– and what’s the difference between these?” And once we’re able to explain it to them they go, “Oh, okay. I get it.” The frustration, I think, is that they had the term “early voting,” confused with the early voting that you can do in the larger municipalities having it counted on that day of the election. Or they vote– they’re coming yes, early before the day’ before Tuesday, but it’s absentee-in-person. So they’re having frustration with that.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

Do you know how the Coast Guard is voting?

 

Alise Rice:

 

The Coast Guard would be doing the very same thing. So they would be coming into the borough chambers and voting just as the rest of us do.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So if early voting were to be available for us, even as a small municipality, would there be any advantage to doing absentee in person voting? Or would that supersede it?

 

Alise Rice:

 

So if the early voting as defined by this date, was occurring here in our small municipality, the the advantage would be, “I am traveling to go see my family down in the States, I’m not going to be in Kodiak to vote.” Or it would be “I am high risk for COVID. Or I’m just a higher risk person.” iI any situation, they can come in, they can say “I’m more comfortable doing it with less people around.” And it’s for their advantage that they’re not coming in contact with so many people.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So for the early in person voting– if I were to say, live on the mainland, would I be able to do an absentee-in person-vote if early voting in person were available?

 

Alise Rice:

 

Okay, so those terms all get kind of convoluted in in kind of wrapped between each other. So if you are not going… if you are not on the rock, you’re in Anchorage, or you’re out of state and you’re not going to be back here for the day of the election, you can apply to the clerk’s office for a ballot by mail. And we will process your application, we mail out your ballot to you at the mailing address that you’ve indicated for the states or Anchorage. And you mail that back to us. So when that occurs, when you vote that way, you have to ensure that your ballot has been posted on that date of the election. If it’s not, it’s not going to count. So if you are doing that, if you’re doing like a long distance where we send your ballot to you, you need to be aware that there is a deadline for it to be posted for it to be counted.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So for my personal curiosity, say you’re born and raised in Anchorage, and you’re going to vote in Anchorage, can you do absentee-in-person ballots in Anchorage? Or would would would that option just not be available because they would have early in person voting?

 

Alise Rice:

 

No. My understanding is that you can do either-or because not all of the places in Anchorage are going to have that. I don’t know specifically who was doing it. Let’s just use Palmer as an example because they are quote unquote, maybe a smaller municipality, when you can compare it to Anchorage. They may be doing absentee-in-person voting instead of the electronic. I don’t know a whole lot of details on what municipalities and what defines them as a larger municipality. I know that we are not considered that here.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So I suppose that would be my next question then is how the process is decided. But it’s happening behind the curtain, so to speak?

 

Alise Rice:

 

Well, we don’t– we’re the conduit for your general election and your state election. They’re ran by the division of elections out of Juneau. And so these more complicated, more detailed conversations would need to be directed to them. Lori Wilson is our region supervisor, and she would be able to say, “Okay, this is how they determined the large” and “this is how they determined the small.” We’re just here to assist you and make sure that you can vote, you vote comfortably you vote safely. We want you to vote.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So the I mean, I, I know you don’t necessarily know how these distinctions are made between small and large, but like after the distinctions are made; is it just the availability of early in person voting? Or are there other features of the voting system in the larger municipalities other than just that?

 

Alise Rice:

 

Okay, I caught the first part.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

Okay. So the… so we… you may not know, what determines whether or not it’s a small or a large municipality-

 

Alise Rice:

 

Correct.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

So the difference between them, what I can immediately tell, is that one will have in person early voting, and the other will not. Are there any other differences between those communities and how they would vote or what their rules for voting are?

 

Alise Rice:

 

Not that I’m aware of. No, it’s also one of those– confirm with the state of Alaska. My understanding is that there’s no difference.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

Okay, so is there– are there any other things that people should be aware of when it comes to voting here on Kodiak?

 

Alise Rice:

 

So we want you to come, we want you to come to the bureau chambers. It is open today, tomorrow and Monday. So it is open the day before the actual election. It opens at 10, and it closes at four. And so it’s only during the weekdays, will not be on the weekend. So Thursday, Friday, Monday, you can still come in, do your in-person-absentee ballot. When you come in, there’s a very specific procedure for it so that you are only handling your ballot once you’re given your ballot by the official. You go vote, you come back, you’re handed back your envelope that that envelope will go inside, and then you seal it, you put it into the box. So we… we’ve had a few people be concerned about that. And we really want to make them comfortable and understand that once we hand you your ballot, inside of secrecy sleeve, you come back and put it inside the envelope that’s gonna go out to the canvassing machine canvassing team.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

Okay, is there anything else that’s left to be said?

 

Alise Rice:

 

I don’t think so. Just come vote. We want to see you and we got some exciting new stickers for voting. So we’ve got masks and everything to keep you safe, clean spots for pens, dirty spots for pens, so please come vote.

 

Dylan Simard:

 

Okay, Alise Rice thank you so much for your time. You’ve joined us today for a special brief episode of Talk of The Rock to discuss voting issues in Alaska. And now we will return it to our regularly scheduled programming. Thank you so much.